Free Essay on Future Directions of Crime Fighting and Social Policy Implications

In the future, combating crime will have to assume the direction of prevention of crimes before they happen in a proactive way other than the traditional reactive methods that are currently in use. There is a relationship between crime and social policies. (Denham, 2000) Suggests that crime is the occurrence whereby a formal set of regulations and rules that are supposed to be observed are broken. He further suggests that when a particular set of conduct which members of a specific society are broken by an individual or a group of individuals, crime can be said to have been committed.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

This paper will seek to address issues of criminology and its implications for the future. It will also look at the future directions of fighting crime and the role those directions will play in social policy implications.

Also, this paper will seek to address existing potentiality for fighting specific types of crimes that are methodologies such as collecting DNA samples, implementation of the cybercrime spyware, and use of biometrics.

Future conscious people would not deny that the most positive factor in fighting crime in the future will be the role of technology. People are becoming increasingly aware that technology is a double-edged sword. This is because it facilitates crime by inventing new and easier methods of perpetrating it and also provides security agencies with weapons and equipment sophisticated in equal measure to fight against crime (Sue, 2010).

Currently, security surveillance cameras are all over in both private and public spaces to monitor movements and motives of people who move in and out of those places. This method has proved to be quite successful in combating crime as well as recording useful information of crime scenes, which has been of great help in reducing crimes and obtaining information by security agencies pertaining committed crime. This is just a sneak peak of the solutions that technology is offering currently in combating crime, which is also quite suggestive about what technology will have to offer in future regarding crime fighting.

It should be noted that with the infiltration of technology that the world is currently experiencing, criminals too are finding new methods of committing a crime with ease (Simon, 2017). Criminals are using new techniques such as the use of fake identities and impersonation, hacking of corporate computers and even personal computers of their targets to gain access to highly protected and confidential information of their goals. Other methods include cyberstalking and are rising every day. This poses a significant challenge to law enforcement agencies in dealing with these new technology-oriented crime perpetration methods. To keep up with these Tech-savvy criminals, law enforcement agencies have to use more advanced techniques that can successfully combat crime. It is due to this reason that development of advanced biometric and forensic technologies as methods of fighting crime in the future is necessary.

Over an extended period, forensic technologies have made breakthroughs in several areas such as DNA analysis and image enhancement methods for fingerprints among others. The main reason as to why forensic technology will be one of the most necessary ways of crime fighting in future is because of the need to identify criminals positively. DNA analysis is instrumental in navigating the labyrinth that is to unlock the mystery of human identity in cases where eyewitnesses are not available. Where fingerprints left behind at a crime scene could be very difficult and almost impossible to identify, DNA analysis will be helpful in reading clues to identify the criminals.

Another, forensic technology that will be applicable in future id data mining in biometric databases. This method will enable law enforcers in solving cases that have proved to be difficult in explaining today. Data mining systems include the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), which is currently in use in many parts of the world but still undergoing transformations and enhancements to make it more competitive in future crime fighting.

Image enhancement technology is one of the crime-fighting techniques that law enforcers will rely on. Currently, this technology is used to visualize evidence such as imprints left in crime scenes. Scientists are enhancing the method to enable law enforcers to identify any impression left by a criminal anywhere around the crime scene such as impressions made on the floor, on mad or even snow. Non-destructive photographic techniques will be incorporated into this method in future to bring out the minutest of details and make high definition images of the criminals.

The evolving forensic technologies and law enforcement techniques are it DNA analysis or fingerprints identification will play a significant role in future crime fighting by not only combating crime and proving the guilt of criminals but also demonstrating the innocence of wrongly accused individuals.

Due to the ever-escalating cybercrimes, there is a need for the development of security programs that can combat crime from cyberspace. The ideal solution for this problem in future will be the introduction of spyware programs. Here, the programs will collect extensive information such as the computer's IP address, open ports, the operating system type, the last visited URL, the currently signed-in username, the computer's registered owner or holder, the preferred internet browser and its version among other computer specifications. After gathering this information, the spyware program will then settle into a pen register mode, preferably silent, and will then monitor the targeted computer's use and recording every network to which the first connect. This will be a significant step towards containing cybercrime and arresting cybercriminals.

It is evident that the future of combating crime lies in technological advancements especially software development as criminals themselves are advancing technologically and are using the software in it. That criminals are devising new methods to beat technology as eluding CCTV camera's, the future of fighting crime will have to come up with more advanced security surveillance cameras.

Other technological advancements in the future of crime fighting include the use of automated license plate recognition cameras, vomit inducing flashlight, body odor identifier, and shoe printing among other technologically sophisticated methods.

Social policy implications of future crime-fighting mechanisms

Due to advanced crime-fighting methods in future, the social policy will be profoundly affected. There will be a need to decrease the reliance on correctional facilities as the primary response to criminal activities. The new trend will be to replace prisons with alternative and more effective correctional programs.

There will also be a need to do away with the war on drugs and replace it with harm reduction policies whereby law enforcers will work with health professionals in resolving drug abuse.

Eliminating racism or racial bias in the United States will be of great help in combating crime. There is also a need to streamline the criminal justice system to ensure that everyone gets the justice they deserve (Neubauer, 2015). However, the most effective social policy implication in crime fighting in future will be a commitment by the government and the societies to reduce poverty which will be a significant policy in fighting crime.

References

Neubauer, D. W., & Fradella, H. F. (2015). America's courts and the criminal justice system. Cengage Learning.

Simon, J. (2017). Governing through crime. In Law and Poverty (pp. 97-115). Routledge

Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and sexual orientation. John Wiley & Sons.