Crimes and Insecurity in the city Name Professor Course Date Crimes and Insecurity in the city Introduction Development practitioners in both public and the private sectors, mainly those into urban design and development have now established a consensus that different social structural processes could constitute both driving shafts to stimulate urban development on one side and dealing with bottlenecks on the other side. Security is a primary ingredient in designing an environment that is conducive to successful efforts in developing project plans and putting it into action. Therefore, crime is a critical social structural characteristic that requires proper informed understanding to improve security in the any city and its environs. Proper social structural adjustment leads to creation of a user-friendly environment that will facilitate urban development by the practitioners. Background Crime ranges from simple and petty issues such pickpocketing to more sophisticated illegal actions. Crime is measurable. Thus, crime is the level of lawlessness and disintegration of social order. Crime has adverse effect on society. High crime rates disturb the security of any region and eventually leads to a state of insecurity. A United Nations report states, among other things, crime: “impairs the overall development of nations, undermines spiritual and material well-being, compromises human dignity and creates a climate of fear and violence. These adverse effects of crime endanger personal security and erodes the quality of life (United Nations 1992:6)”. It is very difficult to achieve sustainable development in a situation marked by uncontrolled and uncontrollable crime because it breeds and accompanies insecurity. (Albert 1998). Crimes in the city can be categorized into specific areas. Physical criminal violence or physical assault includes homicide, armed robbery, carjacking, attempted murder, manslaughter, and rape. Psychological violence includes lies, threats, and brainwashing. These serve to diminish mental potentialities (Galtung 1990:10-12). Violent crime causes direct harm (Chesnais1992:217), this is a major contributing factor that disturbs security in the city. Violent crimes are more associated by members of the lower social status in a society. These poor people’s life is characterized by poverty. Also, there is also the violent crime against property ownership,- car-jacking and house breaking. Last, less visible crime is another category which often comes under the name of corruption. This includes criminal activities such as embezzling public funds, and filing false information. Such crimes are mainly committed by the elite in society. Most elites are rich and politically connected. By the very covert nature of hidden crimes, most of their perpetrators go free. (United Nations 1992:6). The local people are the main people affected by these crimes (John, (2010). Identifying the root causes of violen.

1. Crimes and Insecurity in the city
Name
Professor
Course
Date
Crimes and Insecurity in the city
Introduction
Development practitioners in both public and the
private sectors, mainly those into urban design and development
have now established a consensus that different social structural
processes could constitute both driving shafts to stimulate urban
development on one side and dealing with bottlenecks on the
other side. Security is a primary ingredient in designing an
environment that is conducive to successful efforts in
developing project plans and putting it into action. Therefore,
crime is a critical social structural characteristic that requires
proper informed understanding to improve security in the any
city and its environs. Proper social structural adjustment leads

2. to creation of a user-friendly environment that will facilitate
urban development by the practitioners.
Background
Crime ranges from simple and petty issues such
pickpocketing to more sophisticated illegal actions. Crime is
measurable. Thus, crime is the level of lawlessness and
disintegration of social order. Crime has adverse effect on
society. High crime rates disturb the security of any region
and eventually leads to a state of insecurity. A United Nations
report states, among other things, crime: “impairs the overall
development of nations, undermines spiritual and material well-
being, compromises human dignity and creates a climate of fear
and violence. These adverse effects of crime endanger personal
security and erodes the quality of life (United Nations 1992:6)”.
It is very difficult to achieve sustainable development in a
situation marked by uncontrolled and uncontrollable crime
because it breeds and accompanies insecurity. (Albert 1998).
Crimes in the city can be categorized into specific areas.
Physical criminal violence or physical assault includes
homicide, armed robbery, carjacking, attempted murder,
manslaughter, and rape. Psychological violence includes lies,
threats, and brainwashing. These serve to diminish mental
potentialities (Galtung 1990:10-12). Violent crime causes direct
harm (Chesnais1992:217), this is a major contributing factor
that disturbs security in the city. Violent crimes are more
associated by members of the lower social status in a society.
These poor people’s life is characterized by poverty. Also, there
is also the violent crime against property ownership,- car-
jacking and house breaking. Last, less visible crime is another
category which often comes under the name of corruption. This
includes criminal activities such as embezzling public funds,
and filing false information. Such crimes are mainly committed
by the elite in society. Most elites are rich and politically
connected. By the very covert nature of hidden crimes, most of
their perpetrators go free. (United Nations 1992:6). The local
people are the main people affected by these crimes (John,

3. (2010). Identifying the root causes of violence can also point to
be strategies to reduce its incidence and impact.
Anticipated question/criticism
Will these methods of solving crimes be successful?
The police service measures success in different ways. These
measures are aimed at problem solving. The problem-solving
can only be called successful when the events that make up the
problem happen less often or obsolete. Measures of police
activity, such as the number of arrests made may not be able to
reduce the level of harm that the community is suffering (Eck,
2002). For example, the number of crimes that happen each
month varies naturally in several ways. There might be more of
some types of crimes in the summer than in winter. This makes
it difficult to know if a reduction in the number of crimes after
you respond to a problem is due to the response or would have
on its own. (Clarke, (2002).
Some of the other questions/ criticisms are;
should be done when the problem persists?
Whether the responses work or not, the reason why should be
worked out because it will help solve similar problems in the
future.
Solution
Doing the business of ensuring the security of all people in the
city should be a priority. This can be done by:
Identifying the real problem (which has been defined as crime)
and coming up with viable and durable solutions hence making
insecurity in the city as a thing of the past. Unemployment

4. among the youths who make the most of the perpetrators of
crime should be addressed. Finding a solution to the issues of
informal settlements and unplanned urban development should
be a top priority. People resident in these areas lack legal access
to lands and other essential services. These factors create a
breeding ground for crimes and insecurity in the city.
Addressing the problems of the slum dwellers in the city will
significantly address the issues of crimes.
The political arm of the government should come up with
effective means of dealing with the criminal gangs in the city.
This will reduce robberies and other related casualties in the
city. Good urban planning by the practitioners will mitigate
these crimes in that they have to design housing with adequate
lighting systems and be in a position to provide easy and quick
access by the police officers. The city has to develop right and
proper comprehensive development plan. The government
should also uphold policies regarding the protection of civilians
by the police. The ratio of police officers to the citizens should
conform to the requisites of the international trademark.
Increasing the number of uniformed police officers patrolling
the streets will assist a lot in curbing crime activities in the
city. Embracing technology also will address insecurity, for
example fixing electronic surveillance and street monitoring
gadgets will create a safer environment since by preventing
those attempting to commit crime because they are aware that

5. someone is monitoring them. The most important is engaging
the local leaders to be the examples of peace champions so that
together with the citizens they can campaign on behavior
change targeted at reforming and rehabilitating criminals.
Conclusion
Crimes in the city have been on the rise for the past years which
has caused insecurity concerns among the development
practitioners who are interested in the urban setting. Instability
creates unnecessary anxiety, high levels of uncertainty and
distorts the cost of doing business in the city.
Residents with children longer term-term residents are the main
people affected by these crimes. Some of the anticipated
questions/criticisms posed involve the questioning the success
of the methods used in solving crimes. It then observes that
problem-solving can only be called successful when the events
that make up the problem happen less often or becomes less
harmful. Identifying the root causes of violence can also point
to promising strategies to reduce its incidence and impact.
Doing the business of ensuring the security of all people in the
city should be a priority. Unemployment among the youths who
make the most of the perpetrators of crime should be addressed.
This will make the young people across the city to be busy
hence reducing casualties. The most important are engaging the
local leaders to be the examples of peace champions so that

6. together with the citizens they can campaign on behavior
change targeted at reforming and rehabilitating criminals. These
will, therefore, ensure that security issues in the city are
managed.
References
Eck, J. E., & United States. (2002). Assessing responses to
problems: An introductory guide for police problem-solvers.
Washington, D.C: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Community
Oriented Policing Services.
United Nations. (n.d.). Human development report. From 1998
to 2003. Place of publication not identified: Oxford University

7. Press.
Clarke, R. (2002). Becoming a problem solving analyst. Hong
Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Albert. (1998) Sustainable developmentChicago, Ill. [u.a.: Open
Court.
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Crimes and Insecurity in the city

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ENGL1301.062 Miranda 1
Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography Assignment
Due Date: Submit in Canvas by 11:59 p.m. on Thurs., June 29 to
receive a grade.

10. ***NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR
ANY REASON.
Instructions:
1) Locate at least five (5) academic sources that relate to the
topic you have chosen for your Essay 3
Problem-