Fighting Crime At cops-ca.org

Crime, by its more basic definition means breaking the law by doing or not doing what the law prescribes in different settings. Crime has different levels that can go from minor offenses to capital murder. Every single society has to deal with crime and criminals on a daily basis, there are many factors that societies take into account when it come to dealing with crime. Some countries have their own set of laws that are tougher depending on the place, in countries such as the U.S there are different punishments for the same felonies depending on the state. For instance, in some states capital punishment exists while in others, the toughest penalty is jail time without parole. Several other countries still have besides jail time, the death penalty as part of their judicial systems. We have seen how penalties can vary depending upon the country, but there are more factors that change in terms of crime too. In some societies, laws have a very strong religious connotation and include different laws according to the gender of the offender. In some places of the world a woman can be stoned to death &;legally&; for showing her face or body in public, and jail time could be long for several reasons. The concept of crime changes drastically depending upon the culture and country, but most perceive some felonies outrageous like murdering or rapping children, that for the general public have a stronger impact than other felonies.

As far as crime rates go, we will start by analyzing some crime figures in different cities of the US and then we will take a look at international figures. In big cities in the United States with a population equal or greater to 250,000 people the crime rates vary quite a bit as well. In the case of St. Louis in the state of Missouri with a population of around 350,000 inhabitants, almost 2,100 violent crimes are reported every year and other felonies such as crimes against the property add up to more than 8,300 cases reported. We can contrast these figures with a city like San Jose, California with almost a million people, in which 3,600 violent crimes are reported annually and 2,300 property related crimes.

In the international crime scene we can mention Dominica, that presents a 113 crime rate per every 1,000 people, New Zealand with a 105 crime rate per 1,000 people, and Finland with a 101 crime rate for every 1,000 people. On the other hand, we have Azerbaijan, with a 1.7 in every 1,000 inhabitants; India with a 1,6 and Yemen with reports of 1,1 crimes per every 1,000 people. Here we have to remember that in some of these places reports are not as precise as we would like ans sometime laws are more permissive that in western countries.

Most crimes such as felonies are penalized with jail time that could go from very short periods of time to long jail time sentences.