The apparent crime rate of the U.S.

To many people the United States seems to have a much larger “serious” crime rate than other countries. This is an issue that has crossed my mind more then once. I have been a California Police Officer for a little over three years. During this time I have tried to answer one question and that is why the United States seems to have a more serious crime problem than other industrialized countries. To explore this issue I have broken my thoughts into three parts which I will discuss throughout this paper. These parts are perception, enforcement, and punishment.

Let’s start with perception. In my opinion many crimes are committed because the perpetrators to not believe their acts our wrong or illegal. According to the text book chapter one, “in a democracy there is a struggle to strike a balance between maintaining public order and protecting individual freedom, especially because of the tensions between conflicting American values.” This is exactly what I’m talking about. I can’t even count the number of individuals I have arrested who believe their actions were justified simply because they felt the “law” infringed on their personal freedoms.

I think the biggest influence on our individual perception of what constitutes criminal activity, is our upbringing or childhood experiences. As a police officer one of the hardest things to learn was how to put my personal beliefs and opinions aside to enforce the written law. People have a way of attempting to justify their actions. An example I would like to use is as follows. Let’s say a man commits a theft. Now your first reaction would be to say of course that’s a crime. But let’s say that the man stole food from a grocery store and his intent was to provide for his starving family. Although the California penal code still defines this act as a crime, there are many who would feel sympathy for the individual because of the reasoning. Some believe as the old saying goes “the ends justify the means.” Whether you think this act would be considered a crime or not is a matter of your personal opinion and perception of the events.

Now you’re probably asking what does all this mean? How is my opinion or perception of crime going to affect the Criminal Justice System? Well again this is based on my own personal experiences but just hear me out. Who do you think will fill those jury seats? As a police officer I do not serve jury duty due to a strong and obvious conflict of interest. Not to say I couldn’t, in fact I personally feel I could be fare if serving on jury duty but what defense attorney would want a police officer on the jury? So basically what I’m saying is that you’re personal feelings, opinions, prejudices, and above all perceptions regarding crime affects the Criminal Justice System, and ultimately the level of crime in this country.

Now let’s move to the next part which is enforcement. There is no point having a law if you (the government) cannot enforce it. A perfect example if the recent issues concerning illegal individuals residing in this country. Now whether you agree or disagree with allowing illegal immigrants to continue to enter and live in this country as they have is not the real problem is it? The problem is that if a law was put into effect that made it a felony to be in this country illegally, how is the government going to enforce that law? As a police officer let me tell you we are seriously overworked as it is. We barely have the man power to maintain the level of security we have now which is not getting any better.

Also where would we house all of these individuals? Our prison system is overcrowded as it is, and to feed the prisoners you need more financial support from the tax payers. And this is why I believe enforcement is becoming a growing concern for law enforcement. Instead of being proactive and working to prevent crime we (law enforcement) are playing a constant game of catch up.

Just like perception, the lack of sufficient enforcement only encourages people to commit crime. This brief discussion about enforcement leads me to my next topic which is punishment.

I believe that a lack of adequate punishment for crime is the largest contributing factor contributing to our growing crime problems. I have arrested or assisted with the arrest of many individuals who committed a “repeat” offense. What I mean by this is that they committed the same crime as they did the previous time they were arrested. This is especially true with crimes committed by juveniles. Many juveniles that I’ve contacted believe they will not be punished due to their age. In fact many juveniles commit the crime to impress their older (adult) friends. This is because members of organized crime (gangs for example) know that a juvenile is less likely to be punished the same as an adult.

Now I understand that juveniles need more education because they may not fully understand the effects of their actions. The problem is that by “babying” these younger criminals, we are only encouraging them to commit more serious crimes. An example I would like to use is as follows. A young man was recently arrested for grand theft auto. While committing the theft he crashed the stolen vehicle into a residence injuring a one year old baby. The juvenile suspect had a prior history of vehicle theft. In fact he had been arrested for the same offense three times prior. It is only now that an innocent child was injured and almost killed that the juvenile suspect was finally given a more serious punishment then probation.

I could go on and on talking about these topics, but I will conclude the following. The reason our country has a higher criminal rate then other countries is due to our perception, lack of adequate enforcement, and the failure to punish criminals in such a way that will make them think twice before committing the same offense again.