JOSE MELARTE G. GOOCO JR.

_
CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE IN URBAN CRIMES,
INCLUDING THE GANG RELATED ACTIVITIES
INTRODUCTION

Dalai Lama say, “Today more than ever before, Life must be characterized by a

sense of Universal Responsibility”. It is now everybody’s responsibilities of bringing back

society’s harmony, which is the very reason of the word “justice”, therefore; Criminal

Justice is liable to bring synchronization by partial adjustment through rewarding person

victimized by crime (relief being the victim) and punishing those who committed the crime.

In this sense, a system was built to have coherence in the society. It composes generally

today of law enforcement for control, court to impose penalty and correctional institution

expedite the penalty or punishment. The system of justice management in crime is

preventing it in a way where offender is being incapacitated and other individual deterred

doing crime for the result of incapacitation such as it doesn’t worth anything but

exhaustion by jailing.

The modern time criminal justice system (CJS) realized the prevention of crime is

the most important in the aspect of the just in the society and bringing peace to everybody

as they go on with their lives. Initially, the law enforcement was tasked to do set of

measures preventing crime. As product of so much research, the set of agencies

composing the system responsible for making crime prevention to happen. In our country,

the Philippine National Police is the primary institution to do policing, the prosecution is

to determination of the possibilities that person accused might be guilty and this thinking

of the accused is not to overruled by the determination fairness of justice, the court is to

provide balance judgment or being prescribed by the law, the correctional institution is to

give deterrence and rehabilitation of the convict for their future integration of them again

in the community, lastly; the community is to offer the acceptance of the repentance done

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JOSE MELARTE G. GOOCO JR._
CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE IN URBAN CRIMES,
INCLUDING THE GANG RELATED ACTIVITIES
by convict and letting them proved themselves as they back with the community the

develop behavior that is acceptable to the norm of the society.

The problem besetting in the criminal justice system are not meeting the objectives

of preventing crime and reoffending. The goals are the assurance of the meeting up the

sustainable balance or harmony in living peacefully. In United States of America 2017,

property crime committed was 7,699,086 and for violent crimes 1,283,220. In the

Philippines speaking to how still the abundance of crime in spite of the current effort given

by the criminal justice system, any person safety walking in manila during daylight is

moderate with percentage value of 53.76 and during night, you are safe with percentage

value of 27.28 or low in adjectival value. This indicate that prevention of crime doesn’t

happen, and reoffending is still occurring. There should be an adjustment in the strategies

processing in the Criminal Justice System for problem cited in meeting up the objectives

come about.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The make-up of the criminal justice system was created in bringing just in the

society, being just is assurance of security of every individual within; it also means as

addressing the number one objective such as crime prevention. In UNODC, Crime

prevention is defined as strategies and measures that seek to reduce the risk of

crimes occurring, and their potential harmful effects on individuals and society,

including fear of crime, by intervening to influence their multiple causes. The

measures are sole responsibility of CJS seeing it took effect in the community. Nowadays,

the news and other relevant research about crime clearly that there is problem in the CJS

for the obvious abundancy rate of crime happening in so many countries in the world.

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JOSE MELARTE G. GOOCO JR._
CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE IN URBAN CRIMES,
INCLUDING THE GANG RELATED ACTIVITIES
This report aimed and contained all the embodied strategies in crime prevention applied

by the CJS, which used the variables such as incapacitation, deterrence, community

restraints and rehabilitation. Also, this report is to answer the things in aspect of gang

related activities focus on variables such as prevention, intervention and suppression.

DISCUSSION

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM STRATEGIES PREVENTING CRIME:

INCAPACITATION, DETERRENCE AND REHABILITATION

In Binder, G. and Notterman, B. 2017, incapacitation as one way that punishment

might prevent crime, it is far less important than general deterrence, which could influence

many more potential offender (pp.5). It theoretically says that as you imprison offender it

primarily prevented him to commit crime and it is known to community where potentiality

of raising an offender as a matter of hardship or not rewarding to what ever crime they

will commit. The rise of incapacitation in preventing crime issued into selective and

collective incapacitation. Many researchers found out that incapacitation must be

proportionate to all cost in regards with social needs. Selective is less expensive to

implement than collective. In Binder, G. and Notterman, B. 2017, if incapacitation is

conceived in utilitarian terms as strategy for maximizing the social welfare, incapacitation

only succeeds if it cost less than the crime it prevents and all alternative means of

preventing that crime (pp.8). The effectiveness of incapacitation fall with selective

incapacitation which project significance to crime prevention in Netherlands as cited in

Roodman,D. 2017 as example; starting in 2001, the Netherlands rolled out a policy

allowing judges to sentence the most prolific criminals to much more time—say, two years

instead of two months. The statistics of this select group of prolific offenders are

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CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE IN URBAN CRIMES,
INCLUDING THE GANG RELATED ACTIVITIES
remarkable. Roodman, D. 2017, as cited with Vollaard, n.d., finds that 3.66 acquisitive

crimes per month were prevented for each person imprisoned under the law, which looks

modest compared to the self-reports of 256 crimes/year, but is far more than Owens found

in Maryland and Levitt found across U.S. states. Overall, the Dutch law appears to have

reduced crime by a remarkable 25% by 2007. However, Vollaard finds that as a city

imprisoned more of its prolific offenders, the incapacitation benefit slowed, pointing to

diminishing returns.

With Nagin, D. n.d., every utilitarian correctional intervention (except

incapacitation) has, embedded within it, a criminological theory. Logic demands it! This is

because the state is doing something to an offender with the expectation that this person

will not go back into crime. By applying criminal sanctions, the state is trying to affect the

reasons why the person offends. In Deterrence theory, the greater the certainty of

punishment, the less likely crime will occur, the greater the severity of punishment, the

less likely crime will occur. The theory has been tested by so many scholars as if is it

preventive to crime. In Sentencing Advisory Council 2011, all provided the evidence that

a threat of imprisonment generates a small general deterrent effect. However, the

research also indicates that increases in the severity of penalties, such as increasing the

length of imprisonment, do not produce a corresponding increase in the general deterrent

effect. A consistent finding in deterrence research is that increases in the certainty of

apprehension and punishment demonstrate a significant increase in the deterrent effect.

In Cullen, F. and Gendreau, P. n.d., coined since virtually the inception of the

modern criminal justice system a persistent response to what to do with law breakers in

changing them as law abiders-that is, to rehabilitate them. This is a process where a

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CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE IN URBAN CRIMES,
INCLUDING THE GANG RELATED ACTIVITIES
prisoner has to impart in them personally and guidance of correction officer the discipline

and righteous behavior to apply the skilled learned to livelihood as they integrated again

to community. This are generally the type of program (excluding bringing their faith with

God again) process in correctional facility. The expected behavior by the administrator of

the rehabilitation of prisoner are compromising to correctness with it and judgment to any

negative situational life occurrence. Rehabilitation is purposely to reduce recidivism and

reoffending, in other words, it is connected to crime prevention. Cullen, F. and Gendreau,

P. said the rehabilitation in the criminal justice system is the falling enterprise with it. We

are facing the overcrowding of facility that impede the process in providing them a

program for the rehabilitation; wherein on this status we can say the hard way how to

rehabilitate a prisoner on this status, wherein; the words falling enterprise came from the

people from wealthy country.

Summarizing the content of the discussion, the concept of the Criminal Justice System

strategies in crime prevention have the three important process the incapacitation,

deterrence and rehabilitation. With what has been mentioned in the above paragraphs,

selective type of incapacitation is to be improved since there’s so much evidence proving

the effectiveness of which to have crime prevention by sureness of the individual offender

to have lengthy sentence. The deterrence aspect is to put mindfully to those potential

offenders the calculation that there no rewarding thing in committing crime just

incarceration. The rehabilitation considered as the falling enterprise in CJS particularly

for crime prevention, due to the result of high recidivism and reoffending where these are

the sole purpose of doing this rehabilitation.

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JOSE MELARTE G. GOOCO JR._
CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE IN URBAN CRIMES,
INCLUDING THE GANG RELATED ACTIVITIES
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM STRATEGIES IN PREVENTING GANG RELATED

ACTIVITIES: PREVENTION, INTERVENTION AND SUPPRESSION

Gang members engage in a higher level of serious and violent crime than their

non-gang-involved peers. Research about gangs is often intertwined with research about

gun violence and drug crime. It is clear, that gangs, guns, drugs and violence are

interconnected (NIJ, n.d.). Another, as with gang related activity youth gang is also being

knotted for better understanding. Since, the membership in youth gang channeling to

adult gang we will focus the turning point of youth to adult gang membership. The criminal

justice system (CJS) responded in sloping down all the related crimes by gangs

emphasizing to its prevention, intervention and suppression.

In prevention aspect, law enforcement must take an active role in working with

young people to counter the lure of gang membership. When young people’s interactions

with law enforcement contradict a perception that police officers are a punitive authority,

it is possible to establish a relationship of respect and trust. This strategy of officers

serving as positive role models is not a new paradigm, but it must be reinforced (NIJ,

n.d.). The reinforcement must come to the community, just like a community wide

intervention program in preventing joining to gang of the youth. In NIJ, n.d., We know that

the most successful comprehensive gang initiatives are communitywide in scope — with

broad community involvement in the planning and delivery of interventions — and offer a

wide variety of integrated programs and services from multiple agencies that are

coordinated by an intervention team. With the intervention to prevention, strategic plan

must consider demographic characteristics of gang member, attraction to gangs, culture,

and other factors such as family, individual, environment and school.

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JOSE MELARTE G. GOOCO JR._
CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE IN URBAN CRIMES,
INCLUDING THE GANG RELATED ACTIVITIES
About suppression of gang activities, law enforcer or the police is the responsible

agency, but this aspect community cooperation is badly needed for its success. With the

study of Akerlof, G. and Yellen, N. n.d., the most important constraint on the criminal

activities of gangs comes from the police power of the larger society outside its territory

and the attitudes of residents toward cooperation with the police. Residents are quite

aware of the economic dealings of the gangs in their neighborhood, since such activities

as drug dealing require some degree of openness; buyers and sellers must be aware of

the locations and times at which trades can take place. If the residents of poor

neighborhoods cooperate with the police, then the police can exact penalties on the

gangs.

All in all, the prevention is to the capability of the law enforcer with their policing.

In intervention, the policy maker looking other factors and causes of the gang membership

to formulate strategic plan for the success using this as prevention. The suppression will

smoothly be executed, again; with the law enforcer but this community collaboration by

giving information to police is badly needed.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Criminal Justice System responses to crime prevention specially with gang related

activity within the termed incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, intervention and

suppression. The incapacitation of offender, the selective type is the most appropriate

and effective type in the sense of a cost balance if implemented with other social needs

of the community. Deterrence is always intertwined with incapacitation as with that

incapacitation should aware potential offender in the same community that making crime

is not rewarding, the only result can have is a burden with incapacitation. The

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CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE IN URBAN CRIMES,
INCLUDING THE GANG RELATED ACTIVITIES
rehabilitation as crime prevention channeled in the excluding part after release of

convicted in not doing again any crime or recidivism/reoffending.

The prevention, intervention and suppression variable are all in the primary duty

of law enforcer, differentiated with what agency is to be with, the prevention is within the

sole capability of police in their operation, the intervention is to partnered with policy

maker after looking in the factor that causes the gang membership, the suppression is to

collaborate dearly with community for information gathering to plan perfectly an

eradication of gangs.

The report is recommending; first, to have selective type of incapacitation, second,

increases the certainty of apprehension and punishment through enhancement of the

capability of police and courts. Third, focus the rehabilitation of offender building to their

personality and thinking the way they should conclude in stress of life must be positive as

always. Fourth, training in handling cases of youth making an cut off to be a gang

member, Fifth, intervention program should be anchored in research result of what is the

causes of youth joining gangs. Lastly, awareness program to educate community that

their active participation combatting gang related activity is Indispensable.

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JOSE MELARTE G. GOOCO JR._
CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE IN URBAN CRIMES,
INCLUDING THE GANG RELATED ACTIVITIES
References

Binder, G. and Notterman B., 2017, Penal Incapacitation A Straight Critique retrieved from
https://digitalcommonlaw.buffalo.edu

Cullen, F. and Gendreau, P., Assessing Correctional Rehabilitation: Policy, Practice and
Prospects

Nagin, S., n.d., Deterrence: Scaring Offenders Straight

National Institute of Justice, n.d. Gangs and gangs Crime retrieved from
https://www.nij.gov

NIJ, n.d., Changing Course: Preventing Gang Membership

Wolfgang, M. E., and Collins, J. J., 1979, Offenders Careers and Restraint Probabilities
and Policy Implication