Reference no: EM133680606

Assignment:

1. Go to the FBI website and find the link to information about their Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program called "Crime in the United States". Here, you can obtain a breakdown of robberies reported to police by state and region of the country. Examine robbery rates by state. Where does your state fall in the ranking? What factors do you think are related to robbery offending in your state? How do these factors differ from those of neighboring states?

2. Go to the FBI website and find the most recent publication and/or data on bank robberies. Has the rate of bank robberies increased or decreased during the past decade? What factors do you think are responsible for this change? If the incidence of bank robberies has not changed, what policies do you think could be implemented to help decrease the rate?

3. A great place to get information about the prevalence of gang violence and strategies that have been successful at preventing it is the National Gang Center. The center is funded by the OJJDP at the U.S. Department of Justice. Go to this website and learn more about the comprehensive gang model that communities can use to implement programs to help prevent gang violence. Also, look for the most recent publication highlighting the National Youth Gang Survey. Find out for yourself what the survey tells us about the trends in prevalence and composition of gangs and gang membership across the United States. What trends do you see in gang membership across small cities compared to large cities? Has female involvement in gangs changed over time? Do you think that different strategies should be used to prevent females from joining gangs compared to those that have been used for males?

4. Other important information can be found on the National Gang Center website. You can find many programs that have been designed to prevent gang violence specifically, and gangs more generally. These programs are evaluated according to how effective they have proven to be (e.g., PG=Promising Gang program, EG=Effective Gang program). Select at least two programs that have been proven effective and discuss about the mechanisms used by the program. What conditions are targeted for improvement by the program? How does this relate to gangs or gang violence? What is the empirical evidence suggesting that a particular program is effective?