Social Services and Community

Public peace and protection are important to society. It ensures that individuals live together separately or independently in harmony without causing damage to each other. Since the dawn of time, human beings have been peacefully coexisting, save for a few scuffles and disagreements here and there. In the past, we managed to fix our problems regardless of how large or complicated they appeared to be. Even though they seem to be emerging over time, there has always been a solution to any problem.
Small arms will be the biggest threat to peace and stability over the next five years. These are small hand-held weapons that have become surprisingly open to anyone who wants to buy one (DeConde, 2003). In the US alone, more than 45,000 injuries were sustained, and more than 12,000 deaths were registered due to gun violence in the year 2015 (Ezrow, 2016). There have also been cases of mass shootings in schools and concerts (Graham, 2004). In short, the statistics are alarming.

Another threat within the next ten years will be organized crime. This has been a threat for a while but is now proving to be a very serious issue. People are opting to engage themselves in illegal activities so as to generate income to sustain themselves. They form gangs which are well organized and go about their business with such secrecy it would be difficult to catch them in the act (Siegel, 2012). Examples of organized crime activities include drug dealing, illegal gambling, kidnapping, smuggling, copyright infringement, just to name a few (U.N, 2010). Many young people are joining such groups seeing as they are an ‘easy way out.’ This is the main reason why such groups will only get stronger and smarter over time.

We need to work together as a community so as to contain these problems, not just leave the job to the service agencies and police. These are serious issues that are mostly affecting the youth and they need immediate intervention. Combined effort will benefit the whole community.

References

DeConde, A. (2003). Gun violence in America: The struggle for control. Boston, MA: Northeastern Univ. Press.

Ezrow, N. (2016, January 1). Five biggest security threats facing the world in 2016. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/five-biggest-security-threats-facing-the-world-in-2016-52456

Graham, T. (2004). Common sense on weapons of mass destruction.

Siegel, D. (2012). Global Organized Crime: Trends and Developments. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

U.N. (2010). The globalization of crime: A transnational organized crime threat assessment. Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.