Criminologist Greg Newbold says that crime rates spiral up and down in unexplained cycles and they are no easy solutions to reducing crime. Together sentences and more police mean an increasing drain on tax-payers and there is no certainty that they will continue to lower crime levels. Criminals will learn to live with those methods and find ways around them.
Charles Pollard, the chief constable of Thames Valley in Britain, calls zero-tolerance policing a short-term care that works well in urban areas with large amounts of petty crime. Once petty crime is brought under control, he told the Economist, sharp drops in crime will diminish. Observers say the drop in New York crime had to come with the introduction of almost any new tough police policy, because the crime rate was so high.
WPolice Association president Greg O’Connor agrees. "You can talk all the theories you like but, at the end of the day, what will stop criminals from committing crime is the belief that they will be caught. With only 18 percent of burglaries are being solved, and most of them don’t believe they will be caught, burglary becomes something of a risk-free occupation。
However, criminologist Newbold argues that zero-tolerance policing is a dangerous fad that risks creating an arrogant police force because it gives police extraordinary powers. Accusations that New York police harassed minorities were heightened last year when two white New York policemen were charged with the beating and sexual torture of Asian immigrant Abner Louima,and two other white officers were charged with assaulting him in a police car. One policeman allegedly told Louima, "It’s Giuliani time." But police president O’Connor says that the broken windows approach doesn’t necessarily lead to police harassment. He calls zero-tolerance policing a "win-win solution". Other factors must be considered for long-term solutions, "but, if you don’t catch criminals, you can’t rehabilitate them. All the initiatives have to work but you have to ask, ’will they impact on crime?’ and you have to bargain from a position of strength. If you’re talking to kids who don’t think they are going to get caught and who think the police are a joke, then forget it."
Highlighting New York’s success provides a subtle message to police and the communities themselves that crime can be stopped.
66. "Zero Tolerance," a new police policy, derives from Kelling.
A. James Wison and George
B. Rudolph Giuliani
C. William Bratton and John Timoney
D. Charles Pollard
67. The former commissioner and the former deputy commissioner were sacked because
A. they committed crimes themselves.
B. they did not obey the rules.
C. they made the Mayor of New York feel envious.
D. they went to the extremes when they carried out the policy
68. Criminologist Greg Newbold shares different ideas from police president O’Connor in the way |
