Do Street Light Poles Reduce Crime?

It's easy to hide when it's dark everywhere, said Reverend Carey, standing on a dark street in Oakland, California. Crime, he said, can't be prevented when people can't see the criminals.

The debate on whether or not a lighted street at night reduces crime has flared anew, as frightened residents across the country have flooded local city councils with requests for more streetlights on city streets.

Research has indicated that more streetlights reduces crime.

Streetlights act as a natural deterrent and watchman, insisted Brandon Welsh, a professor of criminology at Northwestern University. Studies show that streetlights will reduce crime by 20 percent and more at night. These streetlights also give residents a feeling of ownership over their neighborhoods and a sense of pride, Welsh said.

However, tough budget times have cities scrambling to cut costs, and turning off street lights is one solution. This action has placed city councils in direct conflict with chiefs of police who insist that more light means less crime.

For example, Oakland has seen a large increase in murders this year. So far, 85 people have been murdered in the city this year. That's up 25 percent from the previous year.

The previous Oakland police chief requested more streetlights in the high-crime areas of Oakland. That lighting helped in reducing crime. The chief said that when criminals want to commit a crime, they want to do it in darkness.

Because of the increased crime, the reverend has organized neighborhood watch groups to guard their neighborhoods. To do that, though, requires more light, the reverend said. People can't report criminals if you can't see their faces, he added.

The increased crime that Oakland is experiencing is replicated in other cities across the United States.

The equation is simple: More lights mean less crime, according to an analysis published by the Campbell Collaboration.

The review by Campbell looked at 13 different studies of street lighting in the United States and England and found that improved street lighting cut crime by 21 percent, as compared to areas where street lighting wasn't improved.

Street lighting was more effective in England, where crime fell by 38 percent. The drop in crime in The United States was 7 percent, although the studies used by Campbell were much older than those from England.

The Campbell study surmised that better street lighting also increased community pride. This community pride generated neighborhood solidarity that established an "informal social control" to reduce crime.

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Street Crime in America

Unfortunately, street crime is still with us. Muggings, robberies, rapes and assaults are occurring at an alarming rate every day, and the financial and psychological cost of these crimes are devastating the lives of the victims. Americans have been rudely awakened from their false sense of security and they are angry and afraid. Who is committing these crimes? The majority of these crimes are committed by habitual criminals. Criminologist Marvin Wolfgang asserts that of the males born and raised in Philadelphia between 1945 and 1958, just 7 percent of each age group committed two-thirds of all violent crime.


Nationwide, law enforcement made an estimated 13,687,241 arrests (except traffic violations) in 2009. Of these arrests, 581,765 were for violent crimes and 1,728,285 were for property crimes. The arrest rate was 4,478.o arrest per 100,000 inhabitants of the total estimated United State population.
The arrest rate for violent crime (including murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) was 191.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, and the arrest rate for property crime (including burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson) was 571.1 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Two year arrest trends showed violent crime arrests declined 2.3 percent when compared with 2008 arrests, while property crime arrests increased 1.6 percent when compared with the 2008 arrests.
Arrest of juveniles for all offenses decreased 8.9 percent in 2009 when compared with the 2008 number; arrest of adults declined 1.2 percent.
Nearly 75 percent (74.7) of the persons arrested in the nation during 2009 were males.They accounted for 81.2 percent of persons arrested for violent crime and 62.2 percent of persons arrested for property crime.
In 2009, 69.1 percent of all persons arrested were white, 28.3 percent were black, and the remaining 2.6 percent were of other races.

Are there any answers to the question of what can be done to deter street crime? Many communities are adopting a variety of laws, procedures and practices aimed at reducing street crime.


Putting more police on the street.
Sending more criminals to prison.
Keeping criminals in prison longer.
Develop programs intended to deter crime.

Many people are choosing to take responsibility for their own safety in a variety of ways, some are choosing to take self-defense classes, and even more are arming themselves with self defense products like Personal Alarm and Pepper Sprays.

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Street Crime Vs Corporate Crime - Which is More Damaging to the Country?

Lots of people believe that street crime is a very serious problem in this country. Others however, believe that corporate crime is far worse. Without a doubt, corporate crime is far more damaging to our society than all the street crimes put together. As a matter of fact, when one compares the dollar amount lost and bodily injuries inflicted as result of both crimes, corporate crime is way ahead of street crime. The FBI estimates that the total dollar amount lost to street crimes annually is about $4 billion. Now, this figure is chump change compared to the corporate crime losses from Enron, WorldCom and Tyco. Corporate health care fraud alone costs the taxpayers of this country about $300 billion, annually. Remember the savings and loan fraud of the nineties, called the biggest white collar crime in history, when a whooping $500 billon of taxpayers' money went down the drain.

Well, some say corporate crime is not violent compared to street crime. They say victims of corporate crimes are usually not seriously injured or killed. This is absolutely false. Corporate crime can also be violent. According to the FBI, about 16,000 people are killed in street crimes in this country, annually. Now, compare this to the 56,000 who die every year as a result of corporate criminal negligence. These are people who die from occupational diseases, environmental pollution, contaminated foods, and hazardous products and so on. Case in point, the recent deaths of 25 workers in a West Virginia coal mine, where the company knew these workers were operating in unsafe conditions.

Unbelievably, prior to this preventable tragedy, this same company had received 458 citations from federal inspectors. But the company believes that it's cheaper to run the mine in an unsafe way and risks people's lives than it is for them to comply with the laws. And to make matters worse, a couple of years ago the Department of Justice introduced what they referred to as the deferred prosecution agreement. With this agreement they can bring charges against a company and then tell the company, if you behave yourself for the next couple of years and stay out trouble, we will drop all the charges. Makes you wonder if they are on the corporate criminal's side or against them.

In conclusion, corporate crime is by far the most damaging crime in this country. While street murders are prosecuted every day, here in the United States, deaths from corporate criminal negligence are neither prosecuted as homicides nor as a violation of state or federal laws. Corporate crime is a cancer that is slowly killing this country and we must all work to toward getting rid of it.

Michael Imana is a freelance writer. His articles focuses mainly on personal, home and business security issues. He has published several ebooks on self-defense and home security products. He helped started Prosafety Systems, an internet-based company that specializes in providing the very latest in personal, home and business security products. He is dedicated to helping people protect themselves, their homes and their businesses.

http://www.myprosafety.com
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Street Crime Vs Corporate Crime - Which Is More Damaging to the Country?

When the community is moving towards progress, it is expected that the crimes will also increase and it can be therefore be concluded that progress means crime. Wherever a community exists, people should expect that crime is present because crime is inevitable as part of the sociological aspect of the community derived from the conflict between individuals. A human being must have to think in advance its defense against the criminals and always anticipate the occurrence of crime because crime will definitely come and find its own way to surface.

This dilemma has been present since the beginning of the history of human race because crime has been pre-planted into the human brain. If an individual cannot control the animal thing inside its fragile mind then there is a high probability that crime will occur. When crime occurs it will definitely leaves a damage of certain amount to lives or properties. Whether someone hates crime or not, a person must have to be accustomed to it and ensure yourself all the time to have enough shields and counter defenses when it strikes in surprise.

What is street crime? It is an offense that transpired in our streets or highways committed by a person inclined to violate the law and the few example of that is a simple pick pocketing, and to a much higher one, the highway robbery. Street crime is usually committed by a single individual or by a group. The amount of damage involve in this crime is usually of little value, however, there are lot of instances that the amount damage is also huge especially in the case of bank robbery which is also considered as street crime.

What is corporate crime? It is an offense in violation of the law usually perpetrated by corporation or its officers and employees. This crime is more complicated and the weight of this crime is really huge and the damage is certainly vast. Corporate crime is very well structured. Sometime a corporation or a juridical entity is usually used by those big time syndicates as front or shield in order to hide the true nature of their illegal transactions. Corporate crime is much dangerous since it has so many linkages. Gathering evidence that will prove corporate crime is really hard and it is very challenging because a case investigator must have to tie up or link its evidence gathered from one point to another.

Street crime usually takes a small amount of money while the potential amount of money involve in corporate crime is really huge. Street crime is habitually committed by a single individual or by group while corporate crime is always driven by a number of individual or group. The effect of street crime when it comes to a value of money involve has of little damage to the country. But if we talk about tourism industry street crime is really dangerous since it will drive away the potential visitors in coming to areas where street crimes are rampant. On the other hand corporate crime can have a vast potential of damage to country especially when it involves economic sabotage.

With regards to which crime is more damaging to the country, the answer is either of the two it depends of what sector in the society we are trying to address and the extent of damage incurred. These two categories of crimes we have discussed have both the potential of damaging the country in the great extent possible.

He is a poet and he authored the poetry book: Whisper of Life. He is an avid lover of poetry and born and raised in Surigao City, Philippines.

He earned two baccalaureate degrees: Bachelor of Science in Accountancy and Bachelor of Science in Criminology. He has also earned 36 academic units in Master of Public Administration. He is a registered criminologist. Please visit his personal website @ http://www.cesargealogo.com