Journal: Crime in Your Community

Emotions have been shown to impact legislative responses to crime. For instance, many of the Get-Tough crime policies were based on an emotional response than on scientific evidence about what actually works. Coincidentally, the emotional process has failed to serve as a critical component to our understanding of the criminal justice system’s response to the crime problem. From officer discretion to the desire of an employer to hire the formerly incarcerated, emotional positions on crime remain pervasive. For this Journal assignment, you will examine your own personal beliefs and assumptions about the impact of crime on/in your local community, and then reconcile them with what the research and data says.

Journal:

First, describe your beliefs about how crime impacts your community (from your own observations and interactions, etc.).
Then locate at least one source of data about how crime impacts your community (in terms of safety, occupancy/growth/decline, home values, social fabric, etc.) and briefly explain how the perspectives overlap.
Were your beliefs about the impact of crime on your community accurate? How do they align with the data?
Your journal entry should be 250–400 words.

Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings
Benko, J. (2015, March 29). Big home: The strange and radical humaneness of Norway’s Halden Prison. New York Times Magazine, 10, 44–51.  

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 Walden Writing Center. (n.d.). Common assignments: Critique/analysis. Retrieved March 5, 2018, from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/annotatedbibliographies/critique

Required Media
 LUXS Report. (2014, February 16). Luxury prison: Serving time with amenities [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgujwijPwxo

Criminal Justice Databases
 Walden Library. (n.d.). Criminal justice databases – Best bets. Retrieved March 5, 2018, from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/criminaljusticeresearch#s-lg-box-1525266

 

The following journals are excellent resources in which to locate peer-reviewed articles on criminal justice topics:

The Journal of Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice Policy Review

Justice Quarterly

Criminology and Public Policy

Criminology

Optional Resources
 Fellner, J., Parker, A., & McFarland, M. (2014). Nation behind bars: A human rights solution. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/2014_US_Nation_Behind_Bars_0.pdf