Anakin Hall

Professor Bell
Victimology
2 May 2018

Victim Improvement Plan

Crime has been a major dilemma in society since the beginning and it can wreak havoc

on a person’s way of life. When dealing with these crimes, one tends to forget about those who

are hurt by them and the affects they take place on a person after the fact. These victims can lose

not only just property, but also their sense of safety in one’s own community. Throughout this

paper, I will discuss problems within my own community and using that knowledge and research

on the topic to provide a plan to help improve the outcomes of a specific crime. Victims are a

large part of the criminal justice world and deserve to not only have their property returned to

them, but also their safety.

Active Learning

Before I could start my plan to help improve the outcome for victims of crimes, I had to

decide what community I would choose to implement this program. My first option was my

hometown of Anamosa, Iowa, which I had lived at for 13 years. It was a small town with a

population of 5,430 (United States Census Bureau, 2016). For my second option, I could write a

plan for the city of Dubuque, Iowa. It has a population of 58,531 (United States Census Bureau,

2016). I have lived in Dubuque for three years while attending Loras College and the city has

more crime than one could count.

 Both of these communities have been a considerable part of my life, so I decided to use

the community that I felt will benefit my family and I in the future. The city of Anamosa, Iowa

was my final decision to implement this program because of its smaller size, which in theory,

will be easier and less expensive to produce this program. After deciding what community to

use, I started searching the local paper, The Journal Eureka, for incidents of crime around the

city as well as searching the internet for more information on my community. In the small town

of Anamosa, I found that the most present crimes were Burglary and Thefts. Using the website

City-Data.com, which collects data about criminal activities around the United States. In 2016,

there were 50 different cases of Theft and 19 cases of Burglary (Crime Rate in Anamosa, IA,

2017). These crimes were the most common within the city and have caused the most problems

as well.

Reflective Thinking/Ethical Decision-Making

With Burglary and Theft being the most common in the city I decided to start my plan

incorporating both of these crimes in, even though they are not the same. Burglary is entering a

structure with the intent to commit a crime, but one does not have to be committed. Theft, on the

other hand, is the permanent depriving of property from an owner without their consent and a

crime must be committed for it to be considered a theft. Even though these crimes are different in

their own way, grouping them together for the purpose of this program will help lower the

frequency of both.

The entire program will add more street lights around the city, set up security cameras on

the main streets, and to add a victim compensation budget to help repay those who lost property
because of crime. Anamosa is very under lit when it comes to lighting in a majority of the town.

The addition of more streetlights on the backstreets will help improve visibility for citizens and

law enforcement and add as a deterrence to criminals for committing crimes in the first place.

Adding security cameras to the main streets will help oversee the buildings and businesses center

around the town and be used to find an answer to any suspicious activity lurking in the area. All

those these cameras and streetlights will not be cheap, it is well worth the cost to make citizens

of the community feel safer and reduce the robberies and burglaries.

The final part of this plan will involve the commencement of the victim compensation

fund in Anamosa and Jones County. Since Anamosa holds the county’s courthouse, it would be

more resourceful to spread the fund throughout the county so it will be able grow in size and be

help more people. It will be funded by taking a portion of each sections budget within the city

and courthouse, as well as hosting fundraising activities in the community, such as pancake

breakfasts, luncheons, 5ks, auctions, and eventually renovate the old movie theater on main

street and set aside part of its profits to support the victim compensation fund. These additions to

the community will help improve the outcomes for victims of burglary and robbery by returning

or replacing their property, increase the safety around the community to prevent future burglaries

and thefts in Anamosa.

Responsible Contributing

While adding all of these extensions and events to the community will take time and

money, they will be well worth it in the long run. As stated before, the streetlights and security

cameras will help create a safer environment for the citizens of Anamosa, and help limit the
amount of opportunities criminals will have to commit a crime. The victim compensation fund

will be used to help pay restitution to the victims of crime in Anamosa and the county. While

collecting the money for this fund through fundraisers, it will give the chance for the community

members to interact with one another and the police department as well. Food events, runs and

auctions are all great ways to build trust and relationships in the community and revamping the

theatre will give the people another positive activity to partake in within the town. In its own

way, this plan will be a form a community policing because of the close relationship it will build

with the citizens and the police department. The police will help the citizens and in turn the

citizens will help the police making their job easier in building a safe community for all.
References

Karmen, A. (2016). Crime victims: An Introduction to Victimology (9th ed.). Boston, MA:
Cengage Learning.
US Census Bureau. (2016). Population and Housing Unit Estimates. Retrieved May 2, 2018,
from https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest.html
Crime rate in Anamosa, Iowa (IA): Murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto
thefts, arson, law enforcement employees, police officers, crime map. (n.d.). Retrieved May 7,
2018, from http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Anamosa-Iowa.html