Every 2 Seconds - You Can Be a Victim of Crime

• NCJ Number: 91171
• Author(s): C Siedor
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 0 pages
• Corporate Author: Gannett Broadcasting Group
• Sale Source: MTI; Not Available Through National Institute of Justice/NCJRS Document Loan Program
• Publication Type: Survey (Cross-Cultural)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. 16 mm, 2 reels, 50 minutes, color. Rental is also available from sales source.

Annotation

Noting that there is a serious crime committed every 2 seconds in America, this two-part film focuses first on the problems faced by the police, the prisons, and the courts in attempting to deal with rising crime, then analyzes some social and economic causes of the problem and indicates solutions.

Abstract

Shortcomings of the criminal justice system include insufficient police manpower and ill-defined policing priorities; heavy court caseloads and uneven sentencing practices; and a correctional system eroded by parole practices that release offenders to commit increasingly violent crimes again. Among the solutions discussed is active involvement of the average citizen in such undertakings as Neighborhood Crime Watch programs, which have succeeded in curbing crime in individual communities. The second part of the presentation contrasts American and English society in search of criminogenic features of the American lifestyle. Social factors identified as violence-promoting include child abuse in the home, legalized possession of guns, the identification of masculinity with violence, violence-centered entertainment, prisonization effects upon ex-offenders, mobility and rootlessness of the population, and aggressive competitiveness as a social virtue.