Anne's Sister Mandy example essay topic

Rachael Robles Prof. WattsVictimology CJ N 1"Locks keep out only the honest". By, Jewish Proverb Crime happens all over the world every second of every day. Thus making numerous amounts of victims. Crime victims are all around us even though we may not know it or think about it. According to the crime clock every twenty-five point three seconds a motor vehicle theft occurs. Have you ever thought what it would be like to walk away from you car, even after you have locked it, and to not be able to see it or the things inside it ever again?

Motor vehicle theft happens every day in every neighbor hood including yours. I never realized it prior to this assignment but I live with victims of crimes right in my own townhouse on school property. My housemate Anne was generous enough to tell me her story. As Anne recalls it her story begins last semester when she borrowed her sisters car to get back to school. She remembers parking the car in the top commuter parking lot. Anne distinctly remembers locking the doors and heading down to her townhouse for the night.

When Anne went to use the car Saturday morning it was gone. There was no car in sight. The first thing Anne did was go straight to public safety. They could not help Anne so she called the Reading Police Department immediately.

The officers came about two hours later and made a report, leaving Anne with nothing to do but pray they find the car and the person who stole it. Anne recalls the worst thing about the situation was having to call her sister and tell her the story. Anne's sister Mandy truly understood and simply made a call to the insurance company to see if reimbursements were possible. Nothing else was heard about the car or the perpetrator until the Wednesday after the incident, almost a week later. Mandy received a call informing her the CYMRU township police had found her car Friday night, immediately after the incident, crashed on the side of the road. Mandy of course inquired as to why she had not been contacted for so many days only to find out that the Reading Police Department had not put the theft into the computer system leaving all other departments unknowledgeable about the incident.

Overall, the victim here was truly victimized. Not only did Mandy have to pay for the impound fees from Friday to Wednesday because no one had known the car was found on Friday but she also had to cover all towing fees. The impound fees alone were over $300. Mandy did not get any reimbursement for her car being totaled due to only having liability insurance. The insurance company informed Mandy that if the car was not found at all she would have received a check in the amount of the blue book value but since the car was located she received nothing towards the repairs or anything. Both Mandy and Anne heard nothing else from the police after the incident.

The thief was never found and no charges were pressed nor was a case ever really opened. To this day Mandy doubts their efforts in finding any perpetrator at all. This is the perfect case of the innocent truly being taken advantage of and suffering lots of consequences for no good reason at all! Mandy and Anne blame both the police and the thief. Mandy explained to me that if the cops would have been "on the ball" the car would have been located earlier and that could have saved her a couple hundred dollars. They both expressed to me their feelings of disappointment in the police.

They felt that the police could have done a little more to help locate the car and perpetrator. "It's almost as if they didn't care!" Anne stated. Anne simply felt that they could have arrived to the school for the statement sooner or at least called to let both her and Mandy know how the case was going or if any progress was made. Within our course curriculum we read about the problems with victims and the police. One of the problems was the victims' feeling that police did not care. I can see how the officers see the same things everyday and possibly do become a bit careless or overwhelmed leading them to perform in a lackadaisical manor.

This does not mean that they do not care, however, after seeing the same things over and over again you may just not get so excited after awhile or the victim may see it as a bigger emergency than those not involved. Can we measure the importance of a crime that is not happening to us first hand? Of course it is understanding that the victims become excited for the simple fact that they are experiencing something that they probably thought "could never happen to them". Possibly we should be doing something about the care and follow up that police are entitled to do.

One thing our book goes over is how lifestyles cannot cause crime but rather make you more susceptible to crime. Possibly if the car would have been kept in the rural area that Mandy resides in with her husband and family rather than a college campus it would have not been stolen. Does the typical college life make you more prone to crime? Does the simple fact the Anne parked the car on a college campus entitle her to shared responsibility as covered in our text? Another thing that I was wondering while hearing this story is whether or not there is any sort of compensation from the government that could be awarded to motor vehicle theft victims that are not covered under insurance.

If not, possibly we should be looking into it. Obviously since no offender was located restitution is not an option. There should be some other way of helping out the victims. There are so many ways to look at every crime. You can always think of a different point as to who was responsible for the crime or whether or not everyone did what he or she had to do to solve the mystery of the crime to the best of their ability. A lot of emotions are involved in any crime no matter how small.

Whether or not anyone involved in any crime will ever be completely satisfied by the results or whether or not we ever decide in society as a whole who we are going to blame for crimes is uncertain. You can be certain that everyone just wishes it never happened to him or her. Its obvious that humanity as a whole would be much better off without crime however this is also obviously unrealistic!! "Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves.

What is also true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on". John F Kennedy.