Sending The Wrong Messages To Criminals Encourages Crime

Highlights

Offenders understand that the rules governing them have softened considerably.

We are telling offenders that the justice system is backing down and that their chances for apprehension and accountability are diminished.

Some cities where violence is overwhelming want police agencies eliminated or defunded.

Discussions of reform need to be mixed with messages of accountability. Without the threat of arrests and sanctions, crime and violence increase to the point of making cities unliveable.

Author

Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.

Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of directing award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Former police officer. Aspiring drummer.

Editorial

Messages matter.

A former offender leaves prison and starts a board game trying to persuade people at risk not to get involved in crime.

“I kept thinking of my 14-year-old self and how there were still 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds being incarcerated,” he tells me on a recent evening. “I thought what if they had something they could interact with and get a view of the path that they’re going down? What if they could visually see it while they’re playing?”

What would happen if the game suddenly changed giving the impression that crime and consequences no longer mattered?

MRT.Com

Messaging And Vulnerability

I interviewed hundreds of criminal offenders throughout my career, many for award-winning radio and television shows and podcasts.

The principle question always came down to decision-making. When did they start crime? What age? Why did they get involved? What messages did they receive that encouraged criminal involvement?

Offenders make daily decisions as to criminality.

The rate of violence directed towards females is more prevalent than men for select years per the Bureau of Justice Statistics. It never was that way in the past. Why is violence against women exceeding violence towards men? Is it sexist messaging through music or the media?

Seeing elderly Asian victims viciously assaulted because of a distorted COVID connection is another example of misplaced messaging.

A surprisingly high number of people are repeat victims or are elderly. Groups are victimized more than others because of perceptions of vulnerability, stereotypes “and” the messages society sends.

The most vulnerable among us (i.e., the disabled) are disproportionately victimized because they present an easy target, Disability and Crime. There are hundreds of articles addressing opportunity offenders and crime. Surveys indicate that messages of vulnerability are like guidebooks for victimization.

There are hundreds of thousands of Central Americans at the border because of “messages” suggesting that America will now allow them to stay. On CBS Sunday Morning, the president of Guatemala blamed mass illegal migration on the wrong messages by the federal government.

Does Justice Reform Send The Wrong Message?

There’s nothing wrong with examining change within the justice system. In my mind, everything the system does is up for discussion and debate. Criminal justice reform is a valid issue.

I’ve made my own suggestions as to the length of time on parole or probation or dramatically increasing access to mental health treatment (most offenders have histories of mental health, substance abuse, abuse and neglect, PTSD, brain damage or emotional problems), Mental Health And Crime.

Obviously, actions on the part of “some” police officers need to be challenged. Better police training, equipment and pay is another avenue to explore.

But there are advocates, prosecutors, reporters and politicians suggesting an array of initiatives that send the wrong “messages” to offenders.

We are telling society that non-monetary bail is a right. Regardless of how obvious the offender’s guilt (i.e., a badly beaten woman tells cops that her husband assaulted her), in the minds of some advocates, that person deserves to be set free (without supervision) till his court date.

We are saying that we will not prosecute for shoplifting or other “minor” crimes. Felonies now become misdemeanors.

We are saying that prison sentences are too long even though the Bureau of Justice Statistics states that the nonviolent serve less than two years and violent offenders serve less than three. Three percent of Americans have been to prison but advocates suggest much higher numbers.

We are saying that cops should stop all proactivity including traffic stops. Some in cities (where the violence is overwhelming) want police agencies eliminated or defunded.

There have been endless demonstrations-riots costing well over two billion dollars (per insurance claims) with hundreds of thousands of participants protesting police violence. Some have suggested that there is a war on cops.

Per Pew, 72% say officers in their department are now less willing to stop and question suspicious persons. Overall, more than eight in ten (86%) say police work is harder today as a result of high-profile, negative incidents.

While I agree that everything should be on the table, and I concur that there are dozens of initiatives in justice reform worth discussing, society is clearly sending messages to criminal offenders that we are backing off both enforcement and consequences.

Considering that cognitive-behavioral therapy (i.e., good decision making) is one a few modalities that works when it comes to criminal rehabilitation, and considering the mental health backgrounds of most offenders, and acknowledging the fact that most are under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crime, messages can become convoluted.

Collectively, we are telling violent and property offenders that we are backing off across the board and that their chances for apprehension and accountability are greatly diminished.

It’s a green light for criminality. Cities are paying real consequences.

Per USA Today, violent crime surged after police across America retreated, USA Today. The topic of messaging and reform was addressed by PBS, PBS News Hour.

It’s an issue we can’t ignore.

Violent Crime Increasing Rapidly

These messages seem most pronounced In the cities where crime is growing rapidly.  The amount of violence is staggering with some cities reporting huge increases on top of record-setting violence from the previous year.

We have a 28 percent increase in all violent crime per the National Crime Survey since 2015, a tripling of violent crime per Gallup, endless media reports of vastly increasing urban violence after the lockdowns, a rise in homicides and aggravated assaults in 2019 and 2020 per the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a considerable and recent rise in homicides, aggravated assaults and robberies after the lockdowns by the University of Missouri, and increases in homicides and violence by COVID and Crime, US Crime Rates.

News reports suggest that the cities where protests and or riots have occurred are being hit the hardest, Governing.Com.

It’s African American communities that are bearing the brunt of the violence, NBC News.

There are articles linking police defunding and lack of proactive policing to increased homicides and violence, Washington Times.

There were 722 more homicides in nine U.S. cities last year, according to police data. More than 85% of the increase was in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, The Marshall Project.

FBI preliminary statistics for all of 2020, there was a 25 percent increase in homicides, overall violent crime increased by 3.3 percent, and aggravated assaults increased by 10.5 percent, Violent Crime Increases in 2020.

Major American cities saw a 33% increase in homicides last year as a pandemic swept across the country, millions of people joined protests against racial injustice and police brutality, and the economy collapsed under the weight of the pandemic — a crime surge that has continued into the first quarter of this year, Rising Urban Homicides-CNN.

People are leaving cities. Gun and security sales are going through the roof. Fear of crime is at an all-time high.

Criminologists will correctly state that correlation does not equal causation, but all this comes at a time of intense protests since Ferguson and Baltimore and ninety percent (my estimate) of media coverage is critical with most encouraging a softening of law enforcement and punitive practices.

It’s Not COVID

I responded to a national media source inquiring about the impact of COVID and growing violence. Where historical events in the past have caused crime to rise (with the exceptions of the Great Depression and the Spanish Flu), violence (and serious violence) has been rising considerably per the Bureau of Justice Statistics since 2015, well before COVID, US Crime Rates.

I’m guessing that COVID played a minor role compared to societal messages urging a softening of law enforcement and decreased accountability.

This is partially based on record decreases in arrests for both juveniles and adults.

What’s Coming

Officials in many cities say they are worried that the recent increase of violent crime will continue into the summer months as COVID-related shutdowns and restrictions lift, reports the Washington Post per The Crime Report.

There are reports that politicians are being judged on their response to crime, The New York Times.

Not only are people leaving cities, but sections of some cities also want out. In the face of skyrocketing crime rates, residents and business owners in the Buckhead district of Atlanta are attempting to make the area its own municipality as a means to escaping the dangers that some say are a result of the pandemic and the civil unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd last summer, reports the Washington Post.