National Community Empowerment Programs was in the works long before it was incorporated in 1998. The programming started back in the early 1970’s when there were few laws to protect children and women from battery, molestation, r**e, physical and/or mental abuse, just to name a few. It was a time when we relied on news papers, radio or television broadcasts to tell us what was going on in our com
munities, in the nation or around the world. Our opinions were formed from information that was projected to us and we believed what they told us. Even though child abuse was on the rise and child abductions were happening more frequently, these stories were not well publicized. The rise in criminal acts of victimization against children, as well as the community at large, has blown up to monumental proportions with no end in site. So what happened to allow things to become so dysfunctional? Population: The climb in people being born or entering the USA shows that in
1970 the number of people were 203,302,031, and by 2010 there were 307,745,538. That is more than one billion people in a forty year period. Consider the rise in victims and victimizers with their criminal acts and how the communities were changing over this time span. Crime was escalating faster than laws were being written. Even today, as it was back then, if there is no law against it, you can’t be charged with a crime. God and Religion: A larger part of the population began to claim they did not believe in God as time moved into the future. The rise in criminal behavior has continued to climb as well. The Bible comes with commandments and life lessons to abide by. Even a person denying God’s teachings has to agree that when the commandments are broken, there is a price to pay regardless what you believe. Many believe we can live without guidelines or rules as this is their personal right. When you believe this and come against a criminal with your thoughts and views, you’d be surprised how similar your belief systems really are. They too believe they can live without guidelines or rules. After all, to them it can be as simple as their opinion vs. yours, thus leaving them to do things the way they want to. If you should become a victim, as far as they are concerned, they don’t care. Remorse comes with a conscious which is lacking in many criminals and in many cases has been like this since their childhood. They were not born this way; however they learned hurt, anger and pain when they were very young. This is often a defense in the court system to lessen their punishment. Family and the children: Over the and in this present day, some parents didn’t discipline their offspring, don’t take the time to teach them right from wrong, don’t make them responsible for the actions, lack compassion themselves, are not really caring or are just unable to handle their children. Then we as a society have a problem and a costly one at that. If the actions of a criminal land him in the court system, it becomes a step ladder of costs for the money pyramid. It starts out with paying law-enforcement, then all the people who work at the juvenile detention center or jail facility. Next we pay to house them and feed them. There can also become a transportation cost if that becomes an equation. Criminals are often brought back to the county of their crimes by planes, trains or automobiles. In some cases we pay for their medical before incarceration and then long after they move into the jail or prison facility. Don’t forget they even get dental care and medicines too. Who says that crime is isolated to the victim only? The Internet: The highway to friends and fiends alike. The internet allows us to share stories, pictures, ideas and opinions, not to mention all the games available. Not a bad form of entertainment; however it also allows us to befriend, un-befriend, lie, argue, push ideas on others, pass around stories of interest just to find out they were false to begin with and lets not forget, a place to complain. We also have texting, sexting and su***de. Now what can possibly be changing society to the violent, selfish, hateful and non remorseful people we are becoming? If you are not doing something to try to make positives changes in the world around you, be very careful. You just may find yourself complaining to others about how bad things have gotten. We have designed programs to address the dilemmas that youth and adults find devastating. Crime knows no boundaries, and therefore we have to stay current on ways to help you hopefully avoid becoming a victim of criminal behavior.
