Adolescent Crime in Merced County George Briones-Valencia Ms. Ayik WRI April 2015

Introduction: What is happening? The adolescent crime rate in Merced County is increasing considering the local cities. Compared to other cities that have a population greater than the population of Merced, Merced has a higher crime rate per every thousandth person. In Kidsdata.org, a website that shows adolescent criminal activity, the crime rate for every thousandth person in Merced is 12.1, compared to a large county such as Los Angeles the rate is 7.5.

Does poverty correlate with crime in Merced? The poverty level has increased, according to the city of Merced’s website about 21 percent of Merced’s residents live in poverty considering the state’s 10 percent poverty average. The in the city of Merced the poverty level is high which correlates with the high adolescent crimes. The higher the poverty level the more criminal activity due to the lack of resources for the young children.

Programs Preventing Criminal Activity There is a program for the local Merced community that contains certain attributes that help the younger society. The G.R.I.P program represents the Gang Risk Intervention Program and is offered to the children who live in areas with high poverty levels and are close to gang related violence. The program’s goals are to prevent children from joining a gang, reduce juvenile crime and delinquency, and many more positive impacting goals.

G.R.I.P The G.R.I.P program offers many different types of opportunities for children for example: Alternative ways to deal with conflict Group interaction Problem solving Drug prevention Teen pregnancy prevention Anger Management Couseling

Benito Aguirre Police on Monday announced the arrests of two suspects in the Feb. 15 shooting death of 16-year-old Benito Aguirre, which happened in the parking lot of Tenaya Middle School. Franco Adrian Ortiz, 20, and a 17-year-old boy were taken into custody Thursday after an investigation led by Detective Paul Johnson. Merced police have said they believe Aguirre was killed because of “jealousy over a female.” Capt. Tom Trindad said he could not provide further details on the motive, citing the need to protect the department’s investigation.

My Proposal The G.R.I.P program offers many tactics that can help a child who lives in the city of Merced. My proposal is to create a connection between the local Community College and UC Merced and provide an afterschool program for the children in the local high school. The program’s cost will be minimal because the students are going to be volunteers and a classroom can be used as the location.

Funding my Proposal In order to have a successful program, it should be inexpensive and effective. Holding a major parent conference and introducing the volunteers to the parents should be a good way to start the program. Asking the city for a grant in order to fund the program is top priority and other events may help with the programs expenses. Our goals would be to provide students with homework or classwork assistance and offer any type of counseling for the children in need. The program is free of charge but the parent need to be aware that their child is attending an afterschool program.

Where does my proposal lead to? Afterschool programs alone cannot do much of a difference because of the limited space but the afterschool program is the gateway to a more successful technique, the creation of a community center. Elizabeth Dungan a public administrator of South University Online, says that parks and recreation centers unite communities.

Conclusion In conclusion, the city of Merced is having trouble with adolescent crime caused by different factors but it can be avoided by creating a inexpensive afterschool program that will hopefully create an impact on the young society. The idea of an afterschool program is only the beginning because the creation of a community center will have a greater and a long term positive impact.