Introduction
Detroit has been impacted particularly severely by the continuing, relentless retreat in the United States, which has exacerbated the carnage portrayed earlier. Many abandoned or foreclosed residences are located in decaying communities. Official unemployment numbers in the city, which have been around 25% for an extended period, are anticipated to increase further (Yekollu, 2020). As a result, the city’s principal socioeconomic challenge is the rise in crime rates. According to Yekollu (2020), violence and property crime are among the most significant challenges in Detroit. Furthermore, Detroit has one of the highest crime rates in the US among cities of every size, from the smallest to the largest (Yekollu, 2020). This information explicitly demonstrates that Detroit is subject to many issues that adversely impact society.
Thesis Statement
A high crime rate is a negative phenomenon that endangers citizens’ physical and psychological well-being. However, one should understand that the identified problem is the effect that has specific causes. It is reasonable to analyze appropriate literature to choose an appropriate framework to find out what factors contribute to high crime rates in Detroit. Poverty, lack of education, and unemployment are the leading causes because these issues make it more challenging for people to find their place in society, which motivates them to break the law to make a living. A comprehensive approach is needed to address the problem and achieve positive outcomes. It is equally important to sophisticate policing efforts and ensure that the identified causes are mitigated. Social disorganization theory predicts that the identified contributing factors are the primary social concerns associated with higher crime rates in communities, which explains the high delinquency rates in Detroit.
Methodological Preview
The current essay consists of two key sections that bear the most important information. On the one hand, the Literature Review section deals with three timely and credible sources to identify how widespread poverty, lack of education, and unemployment are in Detroit. This information is significant because it allows for identifying whether these issues contribute to increased crime rates. The following section relies on scientific evidence to prove the connection between the causes and the effect. On the other hand, the Policy Analysis section overviews various initiatives that are designed to address the problem at the local, state, and federal levels. This information demonstrates that the essay discusses various interventions to address high crime rates. As a result, the analysis can help select the most promising interventions that will solve the identified problem and generate positive outcomes for society.
Literature Review
Joblessness is one factor contributing to Detroit’s high crime rates. According to Yekollu (2020), the unemployment rate in Detroit City is double that of the whole state of Michigan. According to Yekollu (2020), over half of Detroit’s working-age population is not even looking for employment; at 53.4%, it has the lowest labor participation rate in the US due to poverty and poor academic performance accomplishment. In addition to unemployment, Yekollu (2020) asserts that the working-age population of Detroit lives below the poverty line. Therefore, Detroit’s employment growth needs to reach the level of the rest of the country. Some more experienced experts and those with little job skills have resigned as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (Yekollu, 2020). The city’s greatest challenge is providing sufficient adult education and job training programs to increase labor force participation.
The lack of education and skills contributes to Detroit’s high crime rate. According to Yekollu (2020), there has been much focus on economic development in Detroit. However, many still need to remember that a stable, educated workforce is essential for substantial and lasting economic development. In reaction to budget constraints, demographic changes, dwindling enrolment, and alternative education systems, public school districts around the US have closed facilities in the last two decades (Yekollu, 2020). Furthermore, between 2000 and 2015, 195 Detroit Public Schools closed due to a 71% reduction in enrollment from 162,693 to 47,959 children (Yekollu, 2020). In this situation, the degree of illiteracy caused by a lack of education may cause members who cannot get a job to return to criminal activity.
Intriguingly, there are multiple approaches to addressing Detroit’s decline in education attainment. According to Yekollu (2020), education was the most crucial topic in Detroit in 2018, and teaching is necessary to improve oneself. In this sense, Detroit’s general populace needs the training to continue contributing positively to society (Yekollu, 2020). As will be mentioned later, the correlation between a lack of education and the rise in crime rates in the city will be considered.
Rose White’s article focuses on Detroit’s socioeconomic concerns, such as unemployment. According to White (2022), the unemployment rate in Michigan has generally stabilized since it peaked in the early days of the covid-19 pandemic, although it remains high in Detroit. A poll by the University of Michigan indicated that over 20% of Detroit’s workforce is jobless, more than twice the 8% unemployment rate in March 2020 (as cited in White, 2022). Based on the article, another cause of unemployment in Detroit is the COVID-19 pandemic (White, 2022). Nearly 39,000 Detroiters resigned from their jobs in the last year, citing pandemic-related factors like tough working conditions, unvaccinated co-workers, and shifting work patterns (White, 2022). For example, the pandemic considerably altered Detroit’s labor market, from the sorts of employment individuals sought to their desire to work.
The year after the pandemic breakout, the city’s unemployment rate peaked. According to White (2022), Detroit’s unemployment rate soared to a staggering 43 percent in the spring of 2020. According to a survey of low-income individuals, four in ten Detroit residents earning less than $30,000 are jobless (as cited in White, 2022). Additionally, Black and Latino inhabitants, having unemployment rates of 23%, are roughly four times more likely to be unemployed than white ones (White, 2022). Researchers discovered that white Detroiters recovered more rapidly, with unemployment falling from 14% to 6% in the last year, compared to 23% for those of color (White, 2022). Therefore, job training programs that prepare Detroiters for high-demand employment sectors and substantial investments in the safety and quality of all work possibilities are required.
The book published by Lersch and Chakraborty entitled Geographies of Behavioral Health, Crime, and Disorder addresses the social reasons for crime in Detroit. According to Lersch and Chakraborty (2020), urban crime rates are influenced by poverty. In 2019, the median family income in the city was $27,838, and 37.9% of the population lived in poverty. The proliferation of abandoned and destroyed buildings during the mass departure from the city resulted in the surviving population, particularly minority impoverished people returning to criminal activity. According to Lersch and Chakraborty (2020), Detroit is one of the world’s most violent cities. In 2017, the police were notified of 13,796 violent offenses (Lersch & Chakraborty, 2020). Furthermore, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the rate of violent crimes in Detroit was much higher than the national average of 383 violent offenses per 100,000 inhabitants (as cited in Lersch and Chakraborty, 2020). In this aspect, there is a correlation between crime rates in Detroit and the extent of poverty among ethnic populations inside the city.
Theoretical Framework
Social disorganization theory (SDT) is one of the prevalent spatial theories about the causes of criminal activity within communities. SDT is a theoretical framework that explains ecological disparities in crime rates based on structural and cultural elements that shape the structure of social order among societies (Kubrin & Mioduszewski, 2019). This technique limited the emphasis of previous sociological research on urban development factors to explore the geographical concentration and stability of criminal behavior rates.
As previously established, the relationship between crime rates and such socioeconomic concerns is legitimate, given that Detroit has the most significant number of individuals who are impoverished, uneducated, and jobless. According to the SDT, such events are caused by the lack of community self-regulatory systems, which weakens social integration (Kubrin & Mioduszewski, 2019). Moreover, according to Kubrin and Mioduszewski (2019), the crime rate is directly impacted by the effect of structural elements on social interactions or the prevalence of delinquent subcultures. Consequently, the SDT, the connection between overall crime and recidivism rates, and the structure of community-based social controls have typically motivated studies on communities and crime. In this example, this data supports the first premise that poverty, lack of education, and unemployment contribute to Detroit’s criminal activity.
Policy Analysis
This section summarizes the existing policy initiatives that demonstrate how the problem can be addressed at different levels. This approach allows for comparing the existing responses and choosing the most effective options. Evidence from reputable sources supports the information in this section, which denotes that the presented evidence is of high quality. One can rely on the discussion below to understand which interventions are more promising for reducing high crime rates in Detroit.
State and Federal Policies
State and federal governments have proposed initiatives to reduce crime in Detroit. For instance, the Detroit precinct implements the Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI). It brings together a team of federal, state, and local organizations to systematically combat gun violence (Circo et al., 2018). Giving technical support to the working group to formulate an intervention began with understanding the dimensions of gun violence and the underlying causes. The working group’s first action was “Operation 8-ball,” organized during the summer of 2001. (Circo et al., 2018). In this operation, a warrant enforcement team was utilized to locate and capture those who violated warrants and were expected to have firearms, given the nature of the offenses they had committed.
Increased Federal sanctions for criminals in possession of a weapon helped Operation 8-ball. In order to ensure that penalties are more assured, the criminal justice system’s handling of cases involving criminals who are likely to possess weapons was given extra attention. One of the difficulties the SASCI effort experienced was maintaining the working group’s momentum throughout the project’s duration (Circo et al., 2018). This was caused mainly by the turnover of working-group participants from the Detroit Police Department (DPD) due to personnel transfers within the police force. The SACSI effort still made tremendous progress despite these and other obstacles.
The Contribution of Civic Groups and Community Stakeholders
Civic groups and other community members in Detroit use the Green Light Program. The concept, which combines community policing with real-time crime-fighting, is the first public-private-community cooperation of its sort (Circo & McGarrell, 2021). The initiative aims to increase neighborhood safety, encourage local business development and regeneration, and bolster DPD’s efforts to prevent, detect, and solve crime (Circo & McGarrell, 2021). In order to effectively record and evaluate video feeds from Project Green Light Detroit users in the agency’s cutting-edge Real-Time Crime Center as part of the initiative, DPD and the City have pledged to provide human resources (Circo & McGarrell, 2021). Instances of violent crime have decreased, because of the initiative, by 23% across all cities in Michigan and by 48% at the other locations as compared to 2015 (Bragg & Jacobson, 2022). In this case, Project Green Light Detroit minimizes criminal activity since most criminals are afraid of getting caught on video.
Successful Experience of Other Cities
The Criminal Justice Investment Initiative (CJII) is a crucial violence prevention approach in New York City that supports the efforts of the police, legislators, and district attorneys. Through this innovative initiative, hundreds of millions of dollars recovered from unlawful bank activity were invested in several locally-based, long-lasting solutions for safer communities (Bragg & Jacobson, 2022). When taken as a whole, CJII offers a detailed plan for helping individuals rise and catch them before they collapse. However, the New Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (NYVP) has just been accepted by the state (Bragg & Jacobson, 2022). The program rewards young people who participate in behavioral counseling, job training, and educational progress since they are in danger of joining in criminal activity.
The Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) in Philadelphia employs a variety of tactics to combat criminal activity and gun violence. By working together with law enforcement, local agencies, and the community to create and execute The Philadelphia Roadmap to Safer Communities, the plan advocates for violence prevention citywide (The City of Philadelphia, n.d.). Additionally, the initiative builds communities by enlisting aid and offering constructive alternatives to enable those affected by violence to become more resilient (The City of Philadelphia, n.d.). As a result, the effort deals with both gun violence and the socioeconomic problems associated with crime.
The aforementioned state-specific programs are designed to provide both short-term assistance and long-term success paths. Therefore, the federal and state governments should invest in crime prevention by addressing the societal roots of crime to find a long-term solution. The CLII and NYVP should be included in the program in this situation. In this instance, CLII will focus on police and legal prevention, while NYVP will address the root causes of crime, such as poverty, unemployment, and a lack of training or education.
Conclusion
Such socioeconomic factors as poverty, unemployment, and lack of education cause the high crime rates in Detroit city. Evidence from three credible and timely sources supports this suggestion, and the social disorganization theory highlights how the causes are related to the effect. The essay has demonstrated that multiple interventions can help address the problem at different levels. Hypothetically, the proposed solution established in the research should encompass the actions highlighted in the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative and the New Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. The former suggestion improves government policing and laws, while the latter addresses the mitigation of such social crimes as poverty, unemployment, and lack of education. The limitation of this research work involves basing the findings on theoretical perspectives and secondary sources. In an effort to advance knowledge, future research should employ the use of primary data as well as a clear methodological underpinning to correlate the social issues discussed and the crime rates in Detroit city.
References
Bragg, A., & Jacobson, M. (2022). To reduce NYC crime, invest in prevention. New York Daily News. Web.
Circo, G. M., Pizarro, J. M., & McGarrell, E. F. (2018). Adult and youth involvement in gun-related crime: Implications for gun violence prevention interventions. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 29(8), 799-822. Web.
Circo, G., & McGarrell, E. (2021). Estimating the impact of an integrated CCTV program on crime. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 17(1), 129-150. Web.
City of Philadelphia. (n.d.). Office of violence prevention implementing strategies and initiatives to prevent, reduce, and end violence in Philadelphia. Web.
Kubrin, C. E., & Mioduszewski, M. D. (2019). Social disorganization theory: Past, present and future. In C. E. Kubrin & M. D. Mioduszewski (Eds.), Handbook on crime and deviance (pp. 197-211). Springer.
Lersch, K. M., & Chakraborty, J. (Eds.). (2020). Geographies of behavioral health, crime, and disorder: The intersection of social problems and place. Springer.
White, R. (2022). Detroit’s 20% unemployment is twice as high as pre-pandemic levels, UM survey finds. My Live. Web.
Yekollu, N. S. (2020). Social and environmental issues for Detroit. Journal of Civil Engineering Research & Technology, 2(2), 1-4. Web.