Crime Prevention and Intervention Strategies

Overview:

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. This is not a coincidence but a direct result of our fear-based culture which also led up to overcrowding in jails and high costs for taxpayers, and it is growing worse in recent years.

 

My belief is that if we want to lower the incarceration rates in our society, we need to begin with increased safety and security in communities,  but we cannot do that without addressing the root-cause of crime within our communities which operates within a fear-based culture.

While I was working in my law enforcement & security career, the Scared-Straight program was one of the approaches that was used by law enforcement agencies to try to decrease crime and increase safety. However, over time, this program and other similar programs like it have been proven ineffective and many criminologists believe they were actually counterproductive because the root-cause of the crime problems was not addressed in the scared-straight program.  Therefore, there needed to be more effective solutions for crime & safety problems.

The scared-straight program had been around since the 1970s and was an intervention strategy type of program that tried to scare teenagers away from crime by showing them what prison life was like and has been used in prisons all around the world.  It was designed to prevent crime by making at-risk kids aware of the consequences of crime before they commit it, in other words introducing more fear into an already fearful culture.

 

Root Cause Problems:

The scared-straight program did not solve the problem because it did not address what causes people to commit crimes in the first place, which are often rooted in poverty and social inequality. The program was not designed to solve the problem of fear in communities, so it just continued to perpetuate it.  It did not go far enough to help people in communities dealing with poverty and social inequality understand why they are scared, so their fears continued to grow and often led them into more dangerous situations.  For example,  a culture can be considered to be fear-based if it has a lot of violence even towards its own citizens in these communities, if it is oppressive to its citizens, or if there is a lack of opportunity for its people. This type of culture often has high levels of crime, inequality and discrimination.  The people who live in these communities usually don’t go out at night because they’re afraid they’ll get caught up in some kind of violence or get mugged or shot at by someone in their own community who has a gun or become a victim of some other violence because it is a culture where violence and criminal activity is often the norm.  In this type of environment, people have a lot of negative thoughts about their future. They are not hopeful about the future because they don’t think that anything can change for them. They believe that the place where they live has no potential for improvement, so any little thing they can take from others within their communities they believe will falsely improve their situation.  Fear-based culture is a type of culture that values the acquisition of power and wealth over all other values.  

 

These communities are also known as “high risk” areas because they have high levels of crime, poverty, unemployment, low educational attainment, poor health outcomes, and other factors that lead to higher rates of violence.  it is not just seen in the eyes of people living there, but also in the minds of law enforcement and how they interact with each other  which manifests in the form of over-policing and mistrust. This culture has been passed down through the generations and it has created a vicious cycle that feeds off itself.  Police officers who work in these areas often have an over-aggressive stance towards the people they police because they are fearful of being attacked by someone who has nothing left to lose due to their fear-based culture upbringing., therefore, the police also acts as the enemy or as oppressors.  Fear-based cultures are destructive to the communities in which they operate.

 

Root Cause Impacts:

Fear-based cultures are rooted in fear and violence, which lead to feelings of powerlessness, shame, and isolation. These feelings create an environment where people are living in constant fear of being harmed by others or even themselves.

The negative effects of fear-based cultures on its community members in which they operate including its children and youth are extensive. They include increased risks for substance abuse, mental health disorders, physical health problems such as obesity and diabetes, as well as higher rates of suicide attempts.

Fear-based cultures are ones where the people believe that a certain group of people is inferior, and because of this, they are treated as such. The impacts on adults as well as children and youth is that they have been taught to be fearful from an early age which is detrimental to the growth and development of these individuals, as it prevents them from reaching their full potential. It also teaches them that they deserve less than others because they were born into a certain social class or community.  It is a culture that has been bestowed upon them by society.

These cultures are characterized by high levels of fear, anxiety, and stress among the members of the community.

 

My Solutions, Recommendations, & Campaigns

These cultures can be hard to reverse, but it is possible  and my goals as Senator of the 2ND Suffolk District is to replace these cultures with a culture of love because transformation is my love language.  The fear-based culture is a toxic environment where adult morale is low, and children have trouble building self-esteem. It is important to replace this negative culture with a positive one.

Educational programs can be used to help adults, as well as children and youth in disadvantaged communities develop skills that will help them become successful adults. These skills include healthy communication techniques, self-control, empathy, and resilience.

The first steps of any transformation are to bring awareness to the ways in which fear-based cultures were formed and maintained. This requires taking into account both individual and group experiences of trauma as well as the social structures that perpetuated these kinds of traumatic events.  The fear-based culture needs to be replaced with a culture of courage.  In order to create a new generation of leaders, we need to create a society that values courage over fear.

In order to change this, we need to focus on changing the environment that these people live in. This means that we need to create a society with more opportunities for education and good paying jobs through the implementation of favorable institutional programs that provide low-income families with resources for that education and job training. 

Additionally, new training programs are necessary for law enforcement and other agencies to understand the roles they all have played in creating a vicious cycle of over-policing and mistrust.

Remember this, our communities are made up of the most talented people in the world, but due to an oppressive culture our talents were unable to shine bright like the precious gems they are.

Be sure to donate to my campaigns and attend my events where we as a community can go more in depth on the solutions that will benefit our communities and have an equally positive affect on the world.

 

 

Deacon James Grant

Massachusetts State Senator – 2nd Suffolk District Candidate 2022