Crime and Social Control (4)

        Crime is one of the most recognized social problem because it directly harms others. Crime is not only can physically harmful but  it is emotionally and economically harmful. In the United States a good portion of our justice system is set up to protect the citizens from harm whether it be physical, psychological or economical. One of the most interesting parts of our criminal justice system is how we recognize crime through statistics or rather crime and clearance rates. These rates are my main interest when it comes to crime because I am interested in studying recidivism rates, basically the statistics of how many criminal offenders will commit another crime once they leave jail or prison. These numbers are important because they help us determine what kind of rehabilitation is works and which ones don't but recidivism rates are rarely studied. Though, as I created this page, I came across other information that I thought might be of interest to this class and others in our area.


Video:
        This is one of the most deadly gangs in the United States and possibly the world. They are called Mara Salvatrucha or MS 13 and they are spreading across the United States like wild fire. I live in Boise and there are branches of this gang about 30 minutes away form me in Caldwell, Idaho. This gang is not the only problem, there are tons of gangs and some reside within particular areas of the country or world but they are a massive issue. As I was telling someone about this video they stated that it is "what empowers the poor," and that to me was an incredibly accurate statement. People join gangs because they have no one or no where to turn and it is usually because of their economic standing in society. This is important to us because not only could we be victims of the crime created within the gangs but it is also our responsibility to help prevent this as a society, at least in my opinion.

This is only part 1 of the video and I implore you to go to youtube and watch the other parts.

Article:
       This article is on acquaintance rape and trying to educate men and women on the dangers of this epidemic of sexual conquests as some would put it or rape which is what it should be labeled. Men are feeling pressure to "score" and in our growing society are taking hold of this pressure and are forcing women to have sex with them whether through physical force or chemical force, i.e. date rape drugs. I chose this article because lately I have been getting campus security emails from U of I on how to protect against acquaintance rapes because it is occurring on our campus and it is a horrible crime.
http://books.google.com/books?id=rjT5pSZgGV4C&lpg=PA462&ots=UFf0HHvmtz&dq=campus%20rape%20statistics%20scholarly%20articles&lr&pg=PA462#v=onepage&q&f=false


Websites:
      This website is full of statistics and trends on crime. It is a great place to see the data and get a good picture of what is going on in the nation.
bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/

      This website is like a one stop shop. It is a resource site that has massive amounts of information that pertain to crime, corrections, government information and how crime issues are being handled, it has publications and news articles, it has everything almost.
www.ncjrs.gov/