Introduction
Has anyone been a victim of crime? It is the most terrifying and traumatic experience people go through. Fear of crime has become an issue of public concern thus reducing it is very essential for it causes stress and can highly affect a persons well being and knock off one’s confidence. Fear can lead to mistrust between neighbors, confine people in their homes and can lead to withdrawal from public places.
Discussion
There are so many ways to reduce the fear of crime in communities for example street lighting, focusing on reducing crime through neighborhood watch programs, introduction of street policing by increasing police visibility in the community, crime reporting techniques, security surveys and community policing. The public should have confidence in the police and there should be increased police-citizen contact, with this, reporting crime will be easy thus this reduces fear of crime in communities (Miller et al., 2011).
The most appropriate method of addressing fear reduction in communities is a problem oriented approach whereby the SARA process (Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment) is used by the police. There should be scanning to know if there is the fear problem, whether it is increasing or decreasing and to determine which group of people are mostly affected. Analyzing is done to determine the causes of the fear, how to stop it and know where the problem lies in order to solve the right problem and also to know how it affects different neighborhoods or communities. After analysis, response follows whereby in responding to the problem one has to employ responses that are meant to solve the existing problem and implement them. In the response level, the police now have to focus on eliminating the issues that causes fear of crimes in communities. Assessment of the response is very vital because it determines whether they are working to reduce the fear of crime or not.
This approach decreases fear of crime in communities because, the police will have all the information and tackling the problem will be very easy for them. It is every person’s responsibility to help in the reduction of fear of crime by being each others keeper.
Miller, L. S., Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. M. H. (2011). Community policing: Partnerships for problem solving (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning.
