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Gerran Kruel, 17,                                                                                 Oak Lawn High School 

Growing up in Chicago you recognize early that crime is a huge issue. So I don’t know where to begin. Everybody around me has at one time or another gone through some type of crime situation. For example, my mom, my dad, and my auntie have gone through some type of crime that has caused them both physical and mental issues. So this topic of crime has ignited a spark in me. I want to see these harmful situations no longer happen. I have a few ideas on how some crimes in Chicago could be prevented. 

First, we must begin with the neighborhood relationships. I would try to create a community that can be trusted. Communities having a friendly bond among neighbors could easily learn how to protect each other. Neighbors watching out for each other can reduce crime or even stop it before it starts. Neighbors can learn to be effective in reporting crimes when they see it. That way the neighborhood would have eyes everywhere. This effort would be a critical way to stop crime in any neighborhood. 

Another strategy is to use education and positive opportunities to discourage crime among youth. Many individuals turn to crime because the doors of opportunity have been closed in their faces. By promoting more educational programs and more after-school activities, some ‘would be’ teen criminals would have better things to do with their time than to plot criminal activities. Encouraging kids to find things that they are good at such as sports or art will help them see that crime isn’t the only thing that they can turn to. This means that through education and opportunities, youth will begin to see the possibilities of a positive future. This may discourage some teens from committing crimes. 

Also, another way crime can be lessened in a community or city is by establishing friendly relationships with the police in a given area. I know you may be asking,” Don’t police sometimes cause crimes in neighborhoods?” Not all police are bad and we should not treat them like they are before we get to know them. Some police want to really “serve and protect.” Having friendly relationships with law enforcement will be a way of getting to know them on a personal level; this should make you feel safer in your neighborhood. Having officers cruising in your neighborhood should promote trust between them and all neighbors. 

Lastly, I realized effort, no matter how small or how, can inspire others to do what they can to reduce crime where they live. Each of us can encourage one another to do our part in dealing with crime in our neighborhoods. For example in sharing my ideas now, I could be inspiring others to think about crime solutions. Hopefully, by sharing my ideas, I can inspire people of my age and older to work together to reduce or eliminate crime. If we come together as one community, we can reduce the crime rate in Chicago. 

In conclusion, my relatives as well as my encounters with crime, have sparked my desire to share my thoughts about what I think are realistic solutions. I believe that if neighborhoods worked on looking out for each other, provided positive opportunities for youth, and developed good working relationships with area police, crime could be reduced. 

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By Miriah Bradley,  17        Chicago, IL 

Prompt #1: Everyone wants to live in a so-called "good neighborhood," Why do some communities have little crime while others have crime incidences every day? What would you do to reduce crime in Chicago if you had multiple resources available to you?

Everyone wants to live in a neighborhood that's considered good, but why do communities have such vast ratings regarding crime? 

My name is Miriah, I'm a 16-year-old from Chicago and I believe it can be traced back to slavery which led to the separation and detestation in communities. Even after the 13th amendment outlawed such, the ruling of Plessy v Ferguson, forming the separate but equal in 1896 left an everlasting impact on neighborhoods today. Everything was separate from water fountains, to schools, to housing. Even when the decision of Brown v Board of Education which overturned the ruling of Plessy, the damage was immense and continued. The White flight started, a strategy that consisted of the White demographic moving away to places such as the suburbs to stray away from neighborhoods of color. Maps were created to show which neighborhoods to stay away from, and little help was granted to low-income neighborhoods with people of color. Because nothing was offered, people had to take things into their own hands by committing crimes and creating/joining gangs to survive. People may say that this was such a long time ago and doesn’t affect society today, but it was only 70 years ago. Looking at Chicago, you can see the separation with the Northside having a majority White population, Southside with a majority Black population, and Eastside with a majority Hispanic population. A lot of these neighborhoods in Chicago have had their back turned on them and had to create their way to survive. Unfortunately, some with crime. 

Today Crime has become so normalized that it just continues to increase. With resources available, I would want a time machine built to stop that first slave ship from ever landing in Africa and creating this spiral of events that still impacts society and neighborhoods today.

By Antoinesha Winslow, 16 years  Chicago, Illinois.

 Everyone wants to live in a so-called "good neighborhood," Why do some communities have little crime while others have crime incidences every day? What would you do to reduce crime in Chicago if you had multiple resources available to you?

  Some communities have little crime while other communities have crime incidences every day because of the people, love, peace, passion, guidance, and respect. You may ask “What do she mean by that?” And I would begin to say some people make horrible decisions, and those decisions end up being crimes. Whether the crimes are Big, Small, targeted, or not the people of the community make them. The majority of the crimes are senseless and uncaused for.

Communities also produce crimes due to the lack of respect and love we show one another. Many communities don’t have lots of crimes due to the respect they give to each other,  the love they display, and the peace that is being brought to the community. Little guidance, passion, and peace play a huge role in community crimes as well. After all, most communities with high crime rates lack them because some people aren’t taught those things. Guidance plays a great role in crime increase or decrease in a community because if someone has no guidance they will begin to do things that are horrible and uncaused for. Passion and peace also play a part in communities because if you bring and uphold peace others will do and provide the same. If the people of the community see someone who has a passion for their community, they will gain more passion and others will begin to display their passion for peace as well.

Something  I would do to reduce crimes in Chicago is to have a group of people go to every community in Chicago and offer peace classes within the communities of Chicago. A resource I would use is the CPS school districts. I would use this resource by going to every school and doing a weekly community empowerment education class and showing youth how to help form a safe community.

By  Joshua Willis, 14,     Fort Worth, TX

 I’m here to talk about 3 ways crime is caused and 3 ways crime can be stopped. Crime has been a problem for years. I think it’s time for all crime to stop, because innocent people are being killed for no reason. One way crime is caused by is gangs. Shooting, stabbing, and fighting each out because they are in the wrong color or because they are in the wrong neighborhood. Gangs have always been around for a while but as time has gone on things have gotten worse. Men, women, and children are dying over drugs, property, or revenge.

Another factor that causes crime is racism, which means a person is targeted because of the color of their skin. An example is in 2023 a white man in Jacksonville Florida shot 3 African American: Darien Sulph, Brandon Bevel & third person is unknown because of their skin color. We have also seen an uprise with the Police racially profiling people with different skin color such as George Floyd and Eric Garner.

The third factor is alcoholism and Drugs. When people are under the influence of drugs or alcohol it causes them to act out of character. Alcoholism and drugs have taken the lives of people of all ages and the deaths are increasing daily.

One we can reduce crime is to have the police patrolling our neighbors more often. Instead of coming when a crime is permitted making their presence known in our communities. Another way is to have more security cameras on our community streets and homes. The Final way is to keep targeted people away from criminals this would allow them to feel safe.

by Joi Willis, 13, Fort Worth TX

“What do you think are at least three major factors that cause crimes and three factors that could reduce crime in a given neighborhood?”

#1 Dysfunctional Family- A dysfunctional family can affect anyone in the family because it can show abandonment of the person or child. Abuse can cause crime because of all the hurt that someone puts the child or a person through. So to reduce that parents can go through a parenting program to help them raise a child properly. 

#2 Peer Pressure-Peer Pressure can easily cause crime because there might be a person who wants to be in a group and they have to do something to prove themselves like take a drug or take a hit on a vape, ETC.Sp to reduce that is to SAY NO!!, move away from the situation, and go tell a TRUSTED ADULT.

#3 Drugs- Drugs can cause crimes because drugs cause people to assault someone. It can be sexual assault, verbal assault, or aggravated assault there are many different types of assaults and all of those are examples of domestic violence. Someone could take a drug and cause a crash. They can either be driving and not paying attention to their surroundings. Or they might be high and walking but walk into the street and cars crash. To reduce this they need to make law enforcement more prevalent in our communities. Those who have been in prison create a plan for them while they are incarcerated to help them stay out of trouble.