Critique of Analysis on Urban High School Disorder Reduction Project

Running head: CRITIQUE OF ANALYSIS
Critique of Analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CRITIQUE OF ANALYSIS
The Belmont High School, in the city of Dayton, has been recorded to have the
highest number of incidents of violent crimes including unarmed robberies, assault and rape,
as per the analysis made by the Dayton Daily News. The incident of arrest and police calling
in the school was so high that it had become a major concern as the students were subjected
to victimization.
Description
To fight against the disorder, such as, fights, assault and disturbances that was
emerging in and around the Belmont High School a combined effort was made by the Dayton
Public School, Dayton Police Department, the Juvenile division of the Montgomery County
Prosecutor’s Office and the Montgomery County Juvenile Court, which is popularly known
as The Urban High School Disorder Reduction Project. The project was intended to address
the issues growing around the school and in their educational performance. The purpose was
to examine the problem oriented policing strategies, comprising Crime Prevention through
Environmental Design, to refuse to provide opportunities for crime and disorder by involving
community partners in a unified alliance. The project proved to be succeeded by reducing the
crimes and improving the measures to meet the educational goals. The school was located in
the southeast Dayton that had a neighbourhood of mix residences of single and multi-
families, government facilities and businesses. In between 2005-2006 and 2010-2011 almost
145 incident of crimes were reported in the area of Belmont High School. It had become a
major concern when in the 2008-2009 academic year, 90 crimes were reported in the 1000
foot radius of the school, which included 51 assault, 3 weapon violated activities, 2 drug
offenses and 3 robberies during the school hour. To combat with this emerging issue the
project plan was implemented in the 2009-2010 academic year, and that resulted into a
decreased rate of crime in that area. A total amount of 21 crimes were reported in the year
only and the most significant decline was observed in the rate of assault which decrease to a

2CRITIQUE OF ANALYSIS
number of 4 from the earlier reported number of 51. An improvement in the test scores and
grades was observed after the notable decline in the crime rates happened.
Theoretical framework to understand why the crime problems were
happening in and around the school
The Routine Activity Theory was applied in this case to explain the occurrence of
crime at the area around the Belmont High School. The Routine Activity Theory focuses on
the situation of crimes to analyse the reason behind occurrence of such incidents (Bacot &
Posick, 2017). The theory was first introduced by Lawrence E. Cohen and Marcus Felson
while they were explaining the changes in the crime rates in the United States. It has been
recognised as the most cited theory of criminology to be applied while detecting the reason of
increasing crime rates. The routine activity theory considered crime as an event and it relates
crime with the surrounding environment and emphasize the ecological process. The routine
activity theory consider that crime is not affected by social causes such as inequality,
unemployment and poverty. The profounder of this theory observed that the expansion of
contemporary society increase the opportunities for crime. For instance, the increasing use of
automobile has helped the offenders in moving more freely to commit the crime such as theft.
The modern lifestyle, urbanization and suburbanization have subsequently led to the
opportunities and occurrence of crime. This theory has been used to study sexual crimes,
cyber-crimes and robberies. The main concern in this case was to determine whether the
motivating or deterrent factors at several residential neighbourhoods encourage or discourage
crime, in which The Routine Activity Theory may play a significant factor (Aic.gov.au.
2018). Applying this theory it was observed that common time frames along with lack of
guardians and suitable targets played as a significant factor to determine the crime incidents.
The highly motivated offenders found that place to be a suitable option for conducting their
activities. The position of the bus stop was an ideal factor that influenced the offenders to