(Swanson, 2006 body A Para. 2)” With the growing problem drug dealers have been able to get around our national security and smuggle illegal drugs into our nation and plague our communities. “Use of and trafficking in illegal drugs is a problem of international scale. The United States is especially familiar with the world drug problem: consumption of illegal drugs in the United States is measured in metric tons, 6 and current budget allocations aimed at curbing drug use and trafficking exceed $12 billion (Swanson 2006) “. Over a half of century the United States has seen a dramatic increase of different types of drugs making its way into the nations streets, these different type of drugs include but are not limited to marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and more.
Williams and Dickinson (1993) found British newspapers devote up to 30% of their news space to crime. However while the mass media show interest in crime they give a distorted image of crime, criminals, and policing. For example compared to the picture of crime we gain from official statistics the media over represent violent and sexual crime. For example Ditton and Duffy (1983) found that 46% of media reports were about violent or sexual crimes, yet these made up only 3% of all crimes recorded by the police. The media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle class than those found typically in the criminal justice system.
Another article by USA Today reported that 58% state and local law enforcement agencies reported that criminal gangs were active in their jurisdictions, up from 45% in 2004. As you can see based on the evidence I have presented you gang related crime is a very important issue in America. There cannot be a peaceful environment in America without them being recognized. This leads to my next point which is the significance of this issue. There are three significant effects this problem has on our country.
POLICE MISCONDUCT IN NARCOTICS: A Closer Look into the Corruption of Policing By Gregory Agoglia ASU College of Public Programs Abstract: The purpose of this research is to see whether there is a relationship between the location of agencies and the number of corrupt officers within certain regions. To do this, we sent out a survey all over the country and even did some field studies. The main reason the survey was done is because we wanted to find out if corruption in policing occurs mostly in rural or urban areas. We tried to do the study within a one month time period. The results showed that most of the corruption occurs in the urban areas, more specifically, in our nation’s capitol.
In the 20s’ it was more about bootlegging, fraud, prostitution rings, etc. Nowadays modernized crime has increased to cyber hacking, large amounts of drug dealing, and human trafficking, etc. During the 1920s’ a famous criminal, Al Capone nicknamed Scarface, was born in Brooklyn on January 17, 1899. (Blackwood) When starting his crime life he started pimping prostitutes and became a bouncer in brothels. From there he started earning over 100,000 dollars per week.
Studies show that areas where alcohol is more accessible have a high rate of street and domestic violence. The most violent crimes committed are alcohol related. Alcohol abuse has been linked to the growing rate of child neglect and abuse, people taking time off from work, and trouble with the law. The misuse of alcohol claims the lives of many Australian men and women. A study conducted in 2004 showed that 3,100 people die each year and 72, 000 are hospitalized due to alcohol.
Intelligence says Sinaloa Cartel has won battle for Ciudad Juarez drug routes.”(CNS News, 2010) At the end of year 2010, 3,622 homicides were recorded in Ciudad Juarez. That was the most that was recorded within the past 6 years. Not only was this cartel known for its bloodshed, but for also for its trafficking of cocaine. This cartel trafficked 1,500 to 2,000 kilograms of cocaine per month to their Chicago cell. (Department of Justice, 2009) That is approximately 18,000 kilograms of cocaine per year in the city of Chicago.
Usually people think gangs are just society’s problems, and label them as killers and drug dealers. A gang is a group of recurrently associating individuals or close friends with identifiable leadership and international organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory in a community, and engaging either individually or collectively in violence. Although gangs exist internationally there is a greater level of study and knowledgeable information of gangs specifically in the United States. A member of a gang is called a gangster. (FBI) In the late 1940’s -1970’s public housing high rises became the home of many gangs, (Riis) In 2009 there were over 1 million documented gang members.
In assessing the question “Are official statistics a reliable source of information about crime in Britain?” several factors will be considered: including how the statistics are collected, the divide between males and females in crime statistics, the over representation of ethnic minorities and any problems in looking at the true extent of crime using statistics as an indicator for this. In the United Kingdom statistics are produced by the Home Office, the first crime statistics were published in 1976, and contained crimes recorded by the police. Today these statistics are published annually. These statistics make up the British Crime Survey, which measures the amount of crime in England and Wales by asking people about crimes they have experienced in the last year. The British Crime Survey also includes crimes which are not reported to the police, therefore is an important alternative to police records and provides criminologists, the police, the courts, the media and anyone else who has an interest with the statistics, two different types of data: Firstly trends on crime over time chartered, Details are compiled from offenders who are eventually found guilty or cautioned; details gathered include sex and the age of the offender.
Task 1-Analysis Gun Crime Statistics for Newham East London I have selected statistics on gun crime in Newham East London from the official Metropolitan Police statistics, as the Borough of Newham has one of the highest recorded gun crime incident hot spots in London from September 2008 to September 2010 From the 12 months leading up to September 2009 there were 127 recorded incidents of guns being used this works out as an average of 10 incidents being reported a month. From 12 months leading up to September 2010 there were 200 recorded incidents of guns being used this works out as an average of 16 incidents being reported a month. In total this works out to be an increase of 57% from the previous year, this is a very significant increase in gun crime and must be addressed as if these statistics were to continue like this over the following years gun crime would be completely out of control. To draw further information from these statistics it would be very helpful to know such things as the size of the population of the Borough of Newham compared to the other Boroughs of London as this would give a better indication of the overall problem of gun crime in this area, also if there has been tensions between ethnic minorities there due to immigration of immigrants and also if the area is socially deprived and has a high unemployment rate and high levels of substance misuse leading to high levels of crime. Another problem could be gang related violence that has led to this increase in violence that would also have an effect on Newham’s neighbouring boroughs.