Community Problem essays

Community Problem essays Till recently, the community I live in was primarily a residential, middle class neighborhood that enjoyed a feeling of peace and security in what was seen as a safe district. Today, that same community is increasingly worried about a growing problem of juvenile delinquency caused by the commercial and low cost residential developments in next-door areas. While the community is concerned about juvenile delinquency leading to a higher crime rate, there is also worry over negative influences impacting younger members given the inevitable intermingling of children in schools The signs of juvenile delinquency first manifested itself in the appearance of graffiti in what was earlier a green, pristinely clean neighborhood; the seemingly aimless loitering of congregations of youth (youth gangs) at street corners, in malls and parks; and stray incidents of reported burglaries. At first, the tendency was to ignore the signs of change but when the frequency of such incidents began rising, disturbing the historically safe and peaceful pattern of community life, the community collectively began to perceive that it was faced with the problem of juvenile delinquency. In fact, it would be of interest to note that though there is no official definition, the situation nevertheless meets three out of the six criteria that are commonly used to identify a community problem: frequency; duration; scope or range; disruption of personal or community life; deprivation of legal and moral rights; and problem perception Having said that, while there was enough tangible evidence to define loss of safety as a community problem, there was reason to doubt the veracity of the worry over younger community members getting negatively impacted by the juvenile delinquents in district schools and surrounding ...