Crime rates may not necessarily reflect the number of crimes that lingers in our communities. Especially in Glassboro New Jersey. First, let’s dive into North Okanagan towns from the year 2007. From “Lowest crime rate recorded in North Okanagan towns.” Spallumcheen and Coldstream had a record low crime statistics ever recorded. It may be due to the rural development of these neighborhoods, but one thing is for sure these towns lack certain urban aspects such as a “downtown,” and has few institutions that serve alcohol. Also, it may appear that rates for break-ins, damaged properties even though are criminal offenses, are not included in the crime stats of these towns. It makes a big difference. These break-ins can drive up crime rates, and in turn, create an illusion that the town is not safe. Glassboro, a town with a crime index of 16(Neighbor), accumulates most of its crime statistic through breakings, property damage, and theft. The ratio of violent crime to break-ins in Glassboro is about 2.12-30.00, that’s a huge jump. That means for every violent crime about 14.15 burglary or theft occurred in the city of Glassboro. From “Burglars, robbers drive crime rate up,” by Nicholas Jones, indicates that burglary has drastically driven New Zealand’s crime rate up with a 4.8 percent rise. But the good news is, the police has made it their goal to tackle burglary cases to reduce it. Besides the fact New Zealand has a high ridden crime rate mostly due to burglary, we can assume New Zealand is just like Glassboro; labeled by high crime rates which are solely the works of burglaries, and, or, break-ins.
An interview between myself and a source who will not be mentioned for privacy reasons; is a student resident at Glassboro, and like most college kids, he lives for the spotlight, parties, and the thrill of being in college. He parties most weekends, and certain weekdays. His go-to phrase to justify his action is, “I’m living my best life bro.” We can safely assume at these venues there are alcohols, and drugs present in these locations. And from “Lowest crime rate recorded in North Okanagan towns” we see the connection alcohol has with crime in a neighborhood. It’s like most crimes are committed whenever a college party is thrown. Let’s look at the number of shut down parties that happen in Glassboro, specifically areas close to Rowan University. With about 8-10 months, Rowan’s campus police shut down nearly 850 cases of unauthorized parties (2018). That is a lot of parties being shut down within 8-10 months a year, especially when all these cases occur specifically in areas within the university, and that doesn’t include the numerous parties that proceed without police interruption or whatsoever. But we can assure ourselves that after the closing of the party no one goes home directly. After a few stops, and mischiefs that these college kids embark on, Glassboro attains itself an epidemic of rampant break-ins, misdemeanors stemming from trespassing to jaywalking, public nudity, and so on. With that, you can trust that these offenses are being recorded, and it adds up to Glassboro’s high crime rate.
Not to sound like a broken record, we are taking a step back to dissect how crime rates come about. From “Production of Crime Rates” by Donald J. Black, we understand that official crime reporting has several factors to it. Meaning when one calls the cops and reports a situation, a police officer has to record and assess the situation. Then concludes is an investigation has to be made into the matter. As for reporting a crime to the police, that becomes “raw data for official crime rates- ‘crimes known to the police.’” (Production). The reason for the complication in computing crime rates is, sometimes some calls are false, there could be a misunderstanding and so on. Sometimes the investigation does not turn out how it was supposed to, and forth. Another look from “Crime Control Measures, Individual Liberties, and Crime Rates” by Jay Albanese. Surprisingly the author of this piece extrapolated his info from 40 different countries and came up with some interesting conclusion, but what stands out the most is that from his tremendous research and work, He found out that Theft, burglary, break-ins were number 1 problem in these countries, followed by assault and homicide.
Despite burglary being a nuisance in Glassboro, and all other places, it is the one thing among many factors that drive Glassboro’s crime rate up. Burglary by college kids, more specifically Rowan Students, or burglary by any Glassboro resident who does not necessarily attend Rowan University. Either way, burglary is still burglary regardless of who performed such act. Going back into the demographics of Glassboro, we find out that areas close to Rowan University- including Rowan University have high cases of burglary and other crimes. It may sound like these areas are crime infested neighborhood, but you know the crime that mostly occurs in these areas do not include any major felony such are murder or of sorts, rather break-ins, theft, trespassing, and so on. The point is not to mitigate the severity of those crimes, but on a scale, if we were to compare crimes such as trespassing to murder or assault, we would conclude that trespassing is not that bad, break-ins are not that bad, unless if it leads to other crimes of malicious intent then we will have to retract our statement. That is what Glassboro faces, a label not well suited for this town, but its crime rate speaks numbers. So it inherits the poor image of a bad neighborhood when in reality, it is petty crimes that chime in unto the rising crime statistic of Glassboro.
Reference
Albanes, J. (November, 2016). Crime Control Measures, Individual Liberties, and Crime Rates An Assessment of 40 Countries. Accessed 23 October 2018
Black, J. D. (August 1970). Production of Crimes Rates. American Sociological Review, Vol. 35, No. 4 pp. 733-748
Jones, N. (October 2016). Burglars, robbers drive crime rate up. The New Zealand Herald; Auckland, New Zealand, A.26. Accessed 23 October 2018
Lowest Crime rate recorded in North Okanagan towns. Kelowna Capital News; Kelowna, B.C. [Kelowna, B.C]. D5. Accessed 17 October 2018
Neighborhood Scout, https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/nj/glassboro/crime . Accessed 23 October 2018
2018 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. Rowan University, https://sites.rowan.edu/publicsafety/_docs/annual_security_report.pdf . Accessed 26 October 2018
Counterintuitive 
King, can you guide me in any way to make a more targeted response to your post than “feedback, please”?
I’m trying to help as many students as possible, and I can be more help to everyone if you ask me specific questions or guide my reading to aspects of your writing that concern you most. I’ll respond first to students who ask me questions I can answer in 15-30 minutes.
Once I respond and you make substantial changes, you can put the post back into Feedback Please for another set of specific questions.
I’d appreciate the give-and-take. Thanks.
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You haven’t asked me any specific questions, King, so I’m going to concentrate on a fundamental problem with your first paragraph. Maybe it will apply to the rest of your essay also.
Apparently your Causal essay will address a connection between crime rates and what they measure. But why “lingers”? If you mean it, it’s confusing. If your argument isn’t about how to reduce the crime rate, then it shouldn’t be in your sentence.
I am lost already.
King, your job is to act as the consummate tour guide. Tell me where we’re going. Give me an idea what route we’ll take and how long we’ll be traveling. Show me where to put my feet every step of the way, and guide my attention to the landmarks along the way. Don’t let me be distracted. You started in Glassboro, New Jersey, and within one sentence detoured me without a guide to North Okanagan. Why? It has the lowest crime rates ever recorded. Does it somehow illustrate the discrepancy between crime rates and crimes committed in Glassboro?
Is that similar to or different from Glassboro? Are we still doing a comparison?
Are break-ins USUALLY counted in crime rates? Or is this an anomaly?
Oh. Maybe you are comparing North Okanagan and Glassboro. Does Glassboro have an abnormally high crime rate? Is 16 good? What’s Okanagan’s number?
I guess the comparison will break down here since we don’t have numbers for Okanagan break-ins.
How did New Zealand get into this paragraph? Is North Okanagan in New Zealand? It can’t be, I guess, since burglaries count in NZ’s crime rate, but not in Okanagan’s.
Do you see why readers would be confused, King?
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Let’s work this paragraph like a tour guide, King.
Did you find that easier to follow, King?
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Redid my causal argument, and I will like you to give it a quick read. Also, My computer’s hard disk drive crashed on Friday night as I was coding. So I’m forced to utilize the school computer. Second, I did most of my portfolio assignments in ms-word, but that’s all gone now along my final projects for coding class, c++ that’s a computer programming language. Anyway the gist is I’m in a tight spot right now, and I’m working on getting back on track. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience.
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That’s terrible news, King, but I will understand if things are frantic for you this week. Keep me up to date.
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