Introduction
For decades, neighborhood watch programs have served as measures for bringing citizens together, reducing crime rates, and creating more cooperation, trust, and respect between community members and police departments. However, nowadays, with the development of surveillance technologies, not every town and neighborhood is committed to the idea of a watch program. As a result, many individuals are unaware of the trends and events in their location. The topic of the given paper is the importance of neighborhood watch programs. The significance of this matter is that it facilitates the process of instilling safety measures and protecting the members since citizens might be at higher risk of becoming a victim without it. Therefore, neighborhood watch programs not only reduce crime rates by providing more intelligence about any wrongdoing and offenders but establish unity, reduce fear of crime, and trust in and cooperation with law enforcement.
WhatsApp Watch Programs as Tools to Reduce Crime
The first theme identified during the analysis of the literature is that digital additions to neighborhood watch programs help reduce crime. The emergence of technological or Internet-based analogs to outdoor citizen patrols and neighborhood watches in the digital world is speeding and extending this trend toward the alert citizenry. More individuals are able to participate in an unnoticed network of controls that accelerates and expands contact among social media users because of the uniqueness of computer-mediated neighborhood watches (van Steden & Mehlbaum, 2022). Such an approach makes the programs even more “do-it-yourself” friendly than non-digital versions (van Steden & Mehlbaum, 2022). Specifically, WhatsApp Neighbourhood Crime Prevention (WNCP) is expanding. Researchers questioned participants in 214 households of a medium-sized town as part of an exploratory door-to-door assessment about their reasons for participating in the relatively new digital WNCP groups (van Steden & Mehlbaum, 2022). The findings illuminated the perceptions of the community and the program’s effectiveness.
First, it is noteworthy to focus on the participants of the watch group. According to the study on voluntary neighborhood patrols and offline watch systems, members are not always law-enforcing individuals (van Steden & Mehlbaum, 2022). Instead, they stand for a form of democratic social movement engagement and civic activity. In the end, it was mentioned that The WNCP groups were studied for a total of 34 months (van Steden & Mehlbaum, 2022). As a result, reducing crime rates with the help of social media does not materialize immediately. A combination of crime-preventative measures tailored to each neighborhood’s distinct qualities would likely be more successful when they are combined with WNCP groups (van Steden & Mehlbaum, 2022). Thus, through social media platforms along with offline neighborhood watch programs, there is an increased probability of crime reduction.
Neighborhood Watch as a Tool for Increasing Citizen Participation and Control
Another theme, identified in a study with a similar topic, is neighborhood watch being a tool for increasing citizen participation in preventing crime and gaining control in the community. According to the study, violent crime in neighborhoods in several American cities rose in 2014 and 2015 after decreasing over the previous 20 years (Louderback & Sen Roy, 2017). Neighborhood watch programs, also known as schemes, which were first used in the U.S. in the 1960s as a way to increase public engagement in the monitoring and reduction of crime, are one important tool for community crime control targeted at preventing such increases in crime (Louderback & Sen Roy, 2017). These initiatives aim to improve both informal and official crime control by encouraging neighborhood people who observe ominous behavior, disturbance, or criminal activity to contact the authorities. Neighborhood watch programs are said to gradually lower local crime rates by raising levels of social accountability and organizing citizens to engage and inform police departments when observing crime actively.
However, in order to gain control in the community, it is vital to recognize several factors that influence crime. Researchers identified three elements that combined to forecast crime over time and space: the prevalence of determined criminals, the accessibility of acceptable targets, and a lack of adequate supervision (Louderback & Sen Roy, 2017). These three components were used to interpret these variations in neighborhood crime trends. Increased concentrations of real estate and violent crime are prevalent in geographic areas, such as neighborhoods, with many potential offenders, such as poor and unemployed populations, and suitable targets involving individuals with high income (Louderback & Sen Roy, 2017). However, the biggest challenge is insufficient proficient care and protection, including neighborhood watch programs. When the given three spatial-temporal elements come together, crime is more likely to happen as criminals may victimize victims with little to no monitoring and low levels of informal and formal regulation. Without neighborhood watch, control of the area will be impossible.
Improved Communication and Cooperation with the Police
The following theme is improved communication and cooperation with law enforcement. As per the account of Schreurs and colleagues (2020), people must have faith in the system, which is law enforcement in this domain. If individuals feel they have a positive and empowered connection with institutional entities, they are more ready to take charge of their personal security, cooperate, and collaborate. The study mentions that residents’ faith in the authorities is known to be contingent on their perceptions of the police’s shared objectives, competence, dependability, and treatment of the public (Schreurs et al., 2020). Individuals may be less inclined to view the policemen as their defenders and less willing to collaborate with them when this confidence is lacking.
Nevertheless, when there is no confidence, people may be more willing to participate because they are compelled to take care of their own safety. This may additionally make it more likely for people to impose their own laws. As a result, people will be exposed to more risk of dangerous consequences when faced with criminal activity. There are two ways that confidence in the authorities may be impacted by joining a neighborhood WhatsApp group. When people have faith in the police, they may be willing to help them; on the contrary, if they have no confidence in the police department at all, they may wish to take charge of preventing crime themselves (Schreurs et al., 2020). However, taking charge of the crime individually might lead to detrimental effects, which is why cooperative neighborhood watch must be implemented while building trust in police.
Neighborhood Watch Programs Reduce Fear of Crime
Finally, neighborhood programs significantly reduce the fear of crime in the community due to the abundance of information on recent events and constant surveillance. With increased crime activity in the area, people are more inclined to experience fear and lack of protection. Danger awareness relates to the perception of the risk incidence, in this case, a risk of criminal activity and disorder, as well as the potential effect of that threat (Schreurs et al., 2020). Individuals might be more inclined to act to reduce the danger by adopting precautionary measures when they believe the risk is substantial.
Intense negative feelings, such as feeling scared, frightened, furious, or powerless, can result in deliberate misconceptions in risk analysis, such as assigning disasters, closeness, and personal significance more weight than they actually should. The study has additionally demonstrated that these feelings generally impact moral behavior, such as pro-social behavior and, more particularly, involvement behavior in the police realm (Schreurs et al., 2020). In this sense, neighborhood watch program creates a sense of security and reduces anxiety and fear. By being exposed to an elevated risk of becoming a victim of criminal activity in the area, people will be more eager to become a part of neighborhood watch programs and become aware of the recent activities and surveillance.
Conclusion
In sum, neighborhood watch programs not only lower crime rates by supplying more information on criminal activity and offenders, but they also foster community cohesion, lessen the fear of crime, and increase trust in and cooperation with law enforcement. The first trend found in the literature was that neighborhood watch programs might be made more digital to assist reduce crime. There is a higher likelihood of crime reduction using social media platforms and offline neighborhood watch initiatives. Another trend found in research on a related subject is the role neighborhood watch plays in boosting public involvement in crime prevention and community control. The improvement of communication and teamwork with law enforcement is the next focus. Due to enhanced cooperation between watch program members and police, there is an increase in trust. Finally, the vast knowledge about recent incidents and continual observation provided by neighborhood initiatives also greatly lower community fear of crime.
References
Louderback, E. R., & Sen Roy, S. (2018). Integrating social disorganization and routine activity theories and testing the effectiveness of neighbourhood crime watch programs: Case study of Miami-Dade County, 2007–15. The British Journal of Criminology, 58(4), 968-992. Web.
Schreurs, W., Franjkić, N., Kerstholt, J. H., De Vries, P. W., & Giebels, E. (2020). Why do citizens become a member of an online neighbourhood watch? A case study in The Netherlands. Police Practice and Research, 21(6), 687-701. Web.
van Steden, R., & Mehlbaum, S. (2022). Do-it-yourself surveillance: The practices and effects of WhatsApp Neighbourhood Crime Prevention groups. Crime, Media, Culture, 18(4), 543-560. Web.