Fear Reduction Strategies

Fear Reduction Strategies

Fear Reduction Strategies

Fear in the society has got serious impacts not only to an individual but also to the community at large. The people need not only to feel safe but also to be safe as they live, shop and do their daily business. Reduction of fear in the community should not be the law enforcement concern but for all the citizens. Safety is for us all and should start within us. There are various strategies and methods which can be used to reduce fear in the community and also to the country in general. Reducing the fear of the crime is the most important than the crime itself. This is because when people reduce this fear, they would be able to deal with the crime actions. Tis paper therefore discus the fear reduction strategies and also the reasons as to why the administrators are out to reduce the fear of the crime but not the crime itself (Henig & Maxfield, 2011).

Community policing is a major strategy to reduce the fear of crime. This is whereby the police are working hand in hand with the community members to reduce the fear in the community members.It is important for the law enforcement to work with the society and also all the businesses to enhance security, reduce the fear among people and also ensure that the people are secured. In addition, it is important for the police to take it as their responsibility to reduce fear and target it through crime analysis. Through carrying fear analysis, the police can have clear information about the more affected areas and target them.The law enforcement authorities need to understand the source of the fear in the community. After establishing these sources they will be able to evaluate the effective measures. For instance, if the fear comes from the failure of lightening in a particular street, the authority needs to put security lights in that place. Community recommendations should also be allowed so that the law can implement the strategies according to the interests of the society. Strategic communication should be implemented as one of the ways of reducing fear. This strategic communication would ensure that any information is got for the purpose of the fear reduction (Friedman et al. 2012).

Additionally, professional policing is also another strategy for fear reduction. The police should ensure that there is strict patrol around the community and also more concern to the highly affected areas. The police should be equipped with tools for dealing with the crimes in order to reduce fear. The fear comes from lack of trust and confident from the residents. It is therefore important for the police to ensure the residents maximum safety in order to reduce fear in the community. The police will do this through creating strong relationship with the community members and free association which would in turn improve the communication between them. The urgent needs should be addressed first like disorder incidents to overcome fear and ensure that the perception of the community is changed. In order to deal with perception, the police need to implement marketing and public relations so that adequate attention can be given even when the police are unable to give (Grabosky, 2010).

Conclusively, it is important to target fear reduction because it is all about feeling about the crime. It is a social, political and economic problem which can affect the growth of a country. Fear of crime discourages political affairs in most of the states drawing the development backwards. Fear has got severe consequences whereby even the property ownership becomes a challenge as it undermines the value of the resident ownership. Police focus on the reduction of fear because it confines people in their residents making them not mingle and work on activities for improving living standards. This means that the people would withdraw their participation in the public life which automatically would contribute to the failure of the community crime control methods. Police should reduce the fear of crime so that the community and businesses are not threatened and can work towards elimination of the crime (Henig & Maxfield, 2011).

References

Henig, J., & Maxfield, M. G. (2011). Reducing fear of crime: Strategies for intervention. Victimology, 3(3-4), 297-313.

Grabosky, P. N. (2010). Fear of crime, and fear reduction strategies. Current Issues Crim. Just., 7, 7.

Friedman, S. M., Munoz, B., West, S. K., Rubin, G. S., & Fried, L. P. (2012). Falls and fear of falling: which comes first? A longitudinal prediction model suggests strategies for primary and secondary prevention. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 50(8), 1329-1335.