Free Omaha Neighborhood Crime Analysis Essay Sample

The research aims at establishing the spatial distribution of assault, robbery, burglary, and auto-theft in the neighborhoods of Omaha - Nebraska, and consequently identifies the resultant policy implications with regard to law enforcement interventions and neighborhood crime mapping (Zhang & Peterson, 2007).

The research focuses on the four major types of crime activities affecting the city of Omaha, which include robbery, burglary, assault, and auto-theft. In order to establish these facts, the research analyses the neighborhoods or regions in Omaha affected by the crime specifically focusing on location variations, prevailing crime densities, and the profiling of these crimes.
• Identification of participants and their role in the action research study

The participants in the research included male teenagers between ages 15 and 24, uneducated adults above 25 years of age without high school diplomas, minorities in the population, and females in the population (Zhang & Peterson, 2007). This was fundamentally aimed at getting the profiling status of the four crime activities and community perspectives associated with the four crime activities.
• Identify the cycle of action research 

Ordinarily, the action research the cycle primarily involves five critical stages, which involve diagnosis, action planning, taking action, evaluation, and specifying learning actions (O'Brien, 2001). In this case the action research cycle involves the following steps: understanding/defining neighborhood crime and current limitation of crime rates (entails diagnosis); identification of methods of data collection (entails action planning); actual profiling of the crimes types across the city of Omaha (entails taking action); data analysis using statistical methods for the crime activities (entails evaluation); and identification of policy implications on law enforcement and crime spatial distribution (entails specifying learning actions).
• Identify the method used 

The method used for data collection include Geographical Information Systems procedures, location quotients, establishing crime density, and statistical method known as ordinary least square multiple regression for the actual analysis.
• Identify how the data was analyzed 

The data was primarily analyzed by performing Correlation analysis and Ordinary Least Square Regression analysis. In the correlation analysis, correlation coefficients between independent variables and density of individual crimes, including correlations occurring between the independent variables (Zhang & Peterson, 2007). In the correlation it was established that the independent variables were statistically significant going by the derived log density values for the individual crime types. In the Ordinary Least Square Regression analysis crime rates and density were measured against location quotients for each individual crime.
• Indicate issues or questions that they might have around the findings 

The arising issues from the findings of the research include: the reinforcement of the social disorganization theory due to evidence showing the existence of social stress variables, which need to be included as a primary focus in addressing city of Omaha crime rates; the use of crime density provides a positive indicator for casualty estimates in the different neighborhoods; the variations in the individual crime types necessitates further research to establish other correlation factors, for example, the issue of policy stipulations of the law enforcement agencies.
• Indicate why this study was of particular interest to you 

This study ways of particular interest to me because of the effectiveness of the social disorganization in identifying prevailing crime factors in different localities. This is especially because in the present law enforcement strategies there is an oversight identifying the critical areas of crime that require more focus. Therefore, this necessitates the need to establish the existing correlations that primarily affect each individual crime in the community setting. For instance, there are different factors leading to the occurrence of robbery, assault, auto-theft, and burglary. Moreover, in the execution of a police officer's professional duties there is need to establish the respective areas of concentration in terms of crime types and rates, where there is need for law enforcement agencies to formulate better strategies.
• What does the study contribute to your own research? 

This study contributes extensively in identifying the status quo in each individual crime activity, which has an overarching effect on the current policy provisions guiding law enforcement mechanisms.  In the current strategies used for law enforcement there exist tendencies of applying certain assumptions when profiling crime areas according to a geographical disposition and previously established trends. This has led to a constant increase in the number of crime incidents seen in some areas. Moreover, this does not take into account the fact that certain correlations changes with time, which necessitates a review of some policies. This aspect is of major contribution to my area of research especially in the understanding of the prime roles of a police officer in securing public safety by virtue of the occurrence of different contextual situations.
• What new learnings came from the analysis of the study?

Various forms of learning were identifies in the final analysis of the results. These include: First, there neighborhood characteristics with the individual crime types especially with regard to prevalence of each; Secondly, the rationale of relying upon official crime rates usually for certain neighborhoods is dubious (Zhang & Peterson, 2007); Thirdly, the profiling of crimes reveals that high crime neighborhoods portray a diverse crime profile while low crime neighborhoods portray a specialization element in a crime profile (Zhang & Peterson, 2007); Fourth, crime density variables can be used to assist law enforcement agencies formulate an accurate map or picture of the density of offences seen in the modern day urban neighborhoods without relying upon the already biased population-based crime rate estimates (Zhang & Peterson, 2007); and finally, there is need to formulate policies focusing more on the impact of other social variables like racial segregation and poverty among other issues leading to the occurrence of high crime rates in some neighborhoods.

 

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