How to Prevent Homicide

It is important to look at ways to reduce murders in your area.

Homicide, or murder, is the most destructive crime in the charge book, and is considered so serious that the death penalty still applies for those found guilty in some U.S. states. Naturally the issue of how to prevent homicides is a tricky one to definitively solve -- otherwise this crime would be a thing of the past. Many studies have been done and many discussions have taken place, and general consensus says that there are a few things that you -- and your community -- can do in order to try to stop homicides.

Instructions

1. Crackdown on the causes of homicides; granted, some are simply unavoidable acts of violence by bad people, but others are caused through desperation from unemployment, fear of gang violence or dependency on drugs. It is vital to stop the causes of homicides in order to stop the homicides from happening in the first place.

2. Protect the weak. It must be noted that homicides will be caused through domestic violence or the elderly being mugged or other examples of the weak being targeted. It is vital social services and police are on their guard for the escalation of issues such as this.

3. Acknowledge and treat social issue which may exacerbate violence. These could include racial tensions in culturally mixed cities, or perhaps homophobic violence or other hate crimes. It is important to identify where homicides could stem from and pre-emptively address the issue with social initiatives to link the groups.

4. Provide economic opportunities to people (particularly young people) so they are not seduced by violence and crime. Aspects of this should include job skills training, a public transportation system that links jobs and also provides access to jobs that pay a living wage, regardless of your color, gender or political persuasion.

5. Encourage initiatives such as gun and knife amnesties in areas which are afflicted with violent crime. This is periods during which people can hand in their weapons without fearing criminal charges. This sends a message that people who are considering violent crime -- maybe even homicide -- can get out of the vicious spiral.

6. Rehabilitate previous violent offenders. Their next crime, in some cases, could be homicide so take the opportunity to help offenders deal with problems which existed before the offender committed a crime. This can include a lack of education, job skills, training and drug problems.

References

• JCCI; Reducing Murder: A Community Response
• Sensible Sentencing Trust: Preventing Homicide
• Project Safe Neighborhoods: Lessons in Preventing Homicide
• "The Boston Globe": 3 Towns Launch Effort to Prevent Domestic Homicide