In the next paragraphs, you will find detailed information about the reflection which the crimes have on the community and the individuals. As a member of a problematic area like Walthamstow, I have seen many people who have been reflected not only emotionally but finically as well. The crimes are one big problem which by itself causes stress inside and outside the community. Even though that the Police creates new crime strategies every year the crime rate is still high and the negative reflections from this are still there. How this have reflected to the community? Before, I start with the reflections which the crimes have I should outline what is the meaning of the word ‘community’. Community is a group of people with something identical between them which could be their nationality, the town they live in e.g. London, their religion, common views or a minority group.
Looking into the members of the community the most affected people are from the minority groups. In my opinion, the reason for this is that the people representing this group have less power to protect themselves which by itself make them easier target for the offenders. The number of groups which I identified as vulnerable to crime are four. Within the next paragraphs, I will talk about each group individually.
The Elderly people are one of the most targeted groups in the community- this group represent the people who are over seventy years old. Those people are more likely to become victims of bogus callers, burglary and theft because at that age they could be tricked easily and most of them normally live by themselves which makes the work of the offenders even easier. They are preferred by the offenders because even if they try to resist, they will not have the power to defend themselves. Some of them also have mental diseases like Alzheimer which affects their brain and makes them forget key information from their e.g. do they have children and how they look like. Which allows the offenders to trick them and get into their property without force. For example, if the offender already knows that the victim has Alzheimer, he can say that he is her/his son which will win the trust of the victim and he/she will let him in without any doubt. The reflection which this might have on this group of people is a total loss of money which will make their life impossible. Some of them may lost their home as a result of the financial loss of the crime which has happened to them at that age this will condemn them to death. Also, some of the offenders could stole life support medicines and sell it to the members of the community, this will not only kill the person from who the medicine was stolen but it will also put the society in danger because the medicine could be sold to anyone. My advice to the people who have kith and kin representing this group is to make sure that they are safe by installing CCTV to the property they live in.
The second group targeted by the offenders are the people with autism, cerebral palsy and other learning disabilities considered as vulnerable to crime. Around 1.6 million people in the United Kingdom have learning disabilities. /1/ Those people are likely to become victims of crime such as physical attacks, verbal abuse, identity fraud/ with bank details/ any many other. The specific thing about this group of people is that some of them are not able to walk or talk which makes the chance of reporting the crime to the Police minimalistic. Even thought that most of them have provided support by an appointed person their finances are still in danger because they could be cheated easily.
The victimisation of people representing this group could be crucial for their confidence and could cause a deterioration of the mental disease that they have. And as I already said their finances could be reflected as well which by itself can reflect to their lifestyle in a negative way. Even thought that most of us accept the people who are different, we all have seen people making fun of people with mental disabilities. To give an example of the reflection which the verbal abuse has on the people with learning disabilities, I will use situation which happened in my school 3 years ago. The case is about a boy with autism, /he was 14 at that time/ and some of my classmates were making fun of him daily calling him ‘idiot’ and many other disgusting epithets, we reported this to the principal and the verbal abuse stopped. I noticed that he was missing classes and after a while I heard from my friends that he is back, that made me happy because I thought that he had overcome the problem but it was not like that. He became aggressive and started act differently. The boy started to abuse other people as a representation of what has happened to him. He became what he was afraid of. When the teacher found out he was transferred to psychologist and as far as I know he is in a clinic know.
The third group for which I will talk about is the people from the LGBT community. This group represents the people with bisexual or homosexual orientation. Those people are seen as most likely to become victims of crimes such as physical abuse, discrimination, verbal abuse, murder and many others crimes. LGBT people are considered as the most hated group in the society which makes the people representing this group feel rejected and superfluous. The murder rate to people of this group has increased with 40% which in numbers is 250 people. Looking into these numbers, I am sure that the LBGT community will feel unsafe. This might reflect to them in many bad ways such as fear from going out, fear from revealing their partners, fear from going to LGBT events and many other barriers which the hate against the gay people cause. The physical and the verbal abuse against the LGBT people could also cause emotional harm which is even worse than the physical because the emotional harm causes mental problems which in their worst form could lead to depression, body harm or even suicide. That is why in my opinion, there should be more support providing centres for the LGBT people because the reflection of crimes such as verbal abuse and discrimination could be treated only by a specialist. All the harm and hate against the gay people cause increase in the finances which the government spends for treating the reflections of the crimes which have happened against them. 24% of the LGBT people had accessed mental health services in the 12 months. /2/ Which by itself has cost the government around £506000. In my opinion, if the society was more friendly to those representing the LGBT group the money which the government has spent could have been used for crime reduction initiatives e.g. which nowadays are very important for all the groups in the community.
The fourth vulnerable to hate crime groups are the Ethnic groups. This group represents the people who are from different ethnic backgrounds and the country they live in is not their origin. This group of people is very common especially in Walthamstow. 39 % of residents are from a different ethnic background. The statistic shows:
The people from these ethnic backgrounds could experience many types of crimes such as verbal abuse, property crime, graffiti representing the negativity against them and many others. As a person representing the Bulgarian ethnic group, I still have not faced any crime against my nationally but that does not mean that I have not seen crimes against the other ethnic groups. On the street where I used to live there was a lot of graffiti against the Romanian ethnic group saying things like ‘You are not welcomed here’ and many other harmful meanings connected with the people on benefits. Even thought that I am not Romanian this have reflected me because I know many Romanians and I know that this not true. But the people who does not know anything about this ethnic background could easily take it for granted. Which by itself could cause other crimes which also cost a lot of money from the government. As an example, I will use the graffiti removal which costs the local council from £60- £450 depends from the size of the graffiti. But the financial cost is not the only cost that the people representing this ethnic group will pay, the emotional trauma is even worse. I could not even imagine how all of this people feel every day seeing their graffiti made against them and the damage on their property. In my opinion, that is why some of the crimes committed in Walthamstow are committed by people from the considered as members of the abused ethnic groups. Maybe, that is their response to those who hate them, I am definitely against this type of self-violence but when the service does not provide you protection what could you do. The fear from going out is the other problem which the people representing this group experience every day, some of them feel fear to go to the local shop which is 3 minutes away because on the way back they could be attacked.
The discrimination is another crime committed against those representing this group of people. The discrimination could be expressed in many ways but it not always could be proven as existing because the people doing it know how to protect themselves and hide it. I will use the black ethnic background as an example of rejection when it comes to job application, I have a friend who is representing this ethnic background which is the reason her application form was rejected and her friend who was close to the boss asked him ‘Why did you reject her?’. And his answer was because of her ethnic background, she will not be accepted by the people working for me. When she realised what is the reason for her rejection, she felt not accepted by the society which changed the positivism she had and her belief that nothing is impossible. I am sure that there are people on this world who still look in ‘who you are as a person’ not what nationality is but it takes time to find them. This time could cost you a lot as a negative aspect for your lifestyle. That is why in my opinion there should be more services proving help for those facing the discrimination because we all have human rights it does not matter; we are we coming from!