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If you are looking for a job in food service, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has some good news for you–the outlook for openings is generally good because many food service workers move on to better and higher paying jobs. However, if you want a good career in the field, you can stay in food service and make a decent living with some education and experience in hospitality industries to back you up.

Depending on the division of hospitality you are interested in, there are programs available at the trade school level, community college level, and university level for you. Here are a few of the jobs and programs available to you.

Food Prep Workers

Most of these jobs require little education or training, and often these employees learn on the job. Supervised by the chefs and cooks, they prepare ingredients, get equipment for line cooks and chefs, and keep work areas sanitary.

Many of these positions are in bars, fast food restaurants, and chain restaurants. The pay is generally low, but that is also true of any entry level position. Many food prep workers are still in high school and are either working for college money or preparing to go on to the food service programs in trade schools or community colleges.

Jobs for Chefs

Chefs must be able to cook well, of course, but are also responsible for some day to day kitchen management. They must be able to direct the prep workers and line cooks, and serve as head cook. In more upscale kitchens, the chef has opportunities to be promoted to sous chef, executive chef, and eventually restaurant management positions if he or she has had the proper education. Generally, a two year program at a community college is expected for chef positions.

In addition to restaurant work, jobs for chefs can include specialty grocery jobs, preparation of cookbooks, and even television appearances. Often busy families will employ a trained chef as household cook. Often they can find employment in non-feed service companies, like large corporations that have kitchens. Many have their sights set on promotions and must make sure they have additional training and education to qualify for them.

Wait Staff

One of the least favorite positions in the food service industry is the wait staff position. Waiters and waitresses (and hostesses) are often the first line of defense in the restaurant, interacting with hungry people who are of ten a little crabby. They must be cordial and friendly, and make sure the service is prompt, the food is prepared as ordered, and that the guests are happy at all stages of the experience.

However, good wait staff in restaurants, bars, and other food service positions are rewarded with high tips and management promotions. High ticket restaurant work requires extensive training for wait staff, and skilled professionals can make good pay waiting tables. Although there are no higher education requirements for wait staff, good communication skills, ability to diffuse negative situations, and snap decision making abilities are highly prized.

Catering Jobs

Catering is a different kind of food service. Wait staff make no tips and cooks do not prepare from a menu, but these are generally higher paying jobs (hourly) than regular restaurant work. Many of the cooks and chefs have had lots of experience in addition to the required education, and wait staff have been trained in high quality service.

Catering jobs are sometimes on an as-needed basis, so often a worker will be scheduled irregularly and works evenings and weekends–this is mostly when corporations have their parties, meetings, and seminars. Jobs in catering are often highly-prized, depending on the catering company. Lots of restaurants offer catering nowdays, and will offer the opportunities to the best of their workers.

Jobs in Hotels

Many of the food service jobs in hotels are similar to restaurants because they often have a restaurant on-site. However, many of these positions will involve room service, where a worker can make better money hourly and in tipping. Most cooking jobs in hotels require some college education and often the cooks and chefs serve as room service wait staff.

A wider range of work hours are sometimes required of hotel food service workers if the kitchen stays open late for room service orders. However, the kitchens themselves are often larger and better equipped than the standard restaurant kitchen. The food service in a hotel will generally match the hotel quality, so it’s easy to judge where one should apply when seeking food industry jobs in hotels.

Management positions in the hotel kitchen often requires a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management, but the pay is higher, status and respect higher, and the choices of positions more flexible.

Specialization in Jobs for Chefs and Cooks

Chefs and cooks may find that their expertise falls into a category, such as pastries or presentation. These chefs will need creativity, a little extra coursework, and on-the-job training to find positions in their specialty fields. However, they will be rewarded with higher pay and status.

Chefs and cooks may also want to share their expertise with others, and many will go back to the community colleges to teach. These positions are highly-coveted among retired chefs and competition is often stiff.

One of the more unique positions for chefs is kitchen engineer. These workers attend specialized training at the university level and apply their creativity, mathematical abilities, and extensive knowledge of kitchen operations to lay out these areas and equipment in an efficient manner. Some kitchen engineers work with architects, industrial engineers, etc.

The Future for Food Service

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that in 2006 there were 3.1 jobs in food service, and jobs are expected to increase by eleven percent. Because of the flexibility in jobs in hotels, bars, restaurants, and catering, they are ideal for both the traditional worker and the student, and offer plenty of room for advancement for all.

Louise G

This video introduces the concept of a service level agreement (SLA) asexplained in the ITIL v3 volume Service Design. The video is one out of a series of study aids for students studying the topic ITI597 with Charles Sturt University. The ITI597 module is provided in a dynamic online and real-time interactive environment, and supported with a virtual study environment located in SecondLife space, and videos such as these. As subject coordinator I provide live web based sessions for all ITI597 students at least once a week, and strongly support any multimedia technology that makes blended and passionate learning a reality. ITIL ® is a Registered Trade Mark, and a Registered Community Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office.

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The exquisitely detailed architecture and natural setting will give residents the feeling of living alongside a sun-drenched Bahamian harbor rather than just a few miles from the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan areas of Orlando and Jacksonville. Bike to historic downtown St Augustine, or take a short drive to the beach, cultural activities or world-class Golf Courses. The area is a boat owner’s dream, whether you have your own boat moored outside your home or at a slip within a few minute’s walk away, you will soon be out on the open ocean or fishing a backwater of the scenic Intra-coastal Waterway.

St Augustine, the nation’s oldest city is a wealth of history and charm. The city is home to historic fort Matanzas, Castillo de San Marcos, and the St Augustine lighthouse. Horse drawn carriages provide a charming ride through the enchanting and historic downtown that retains the old world feel provided by the Europeans that first settled here in the 1500s. These enchanting homes are Cranewoods Development’s contribution to continuing that tradition.

The unique collection of single family homes, cottages, town homes and penthouses, all feature stunning water views, looking across Salt Run to Anastasia park, the Atlantic ocean and St Augustine inlet. The unique designs feature superbly detailed balconies to maximize the views.

Although the homes are built with traditional exteriors, the interiors are luxuriously equipped for the 21st Century. Purchasers can choose from a selection of custom designed interiors, which enhance the desirability of these beautiful properties. The interiors contain a level of architectural detail unmatched in the area.

Construction manager HCM Construction is a nationally recognized builder based in Jacksonville, Florida. They are well acquainted with the challenges of constructing architecturally detailed homes in coastal environments. The homes have been exquisitely designed by Cronk Duch Partners, an architectural firm known for its heirloom quality home designs, with a flair for historically accurate detail.

Whether you are looking to relocate to Florida from out of state; wishing to purchase an exceptional waterfront home your primary residence; for investment or as a second home, then any of these outstanding residences would be well worth considering.

To learn more about this unique opportunity, visit the project website at http://www.abacosatsaltrun.com

HCM Construction, founded in 1992 and based in Jacksonville Beach, has broad experience managing projects from concept through completion and works on a variety of projects as builder, general contractor and renovator. For more information, contact 904-270-0270 or visit http://www.hcmconstruction.com

Cranewoods Development, LLC is known for assembling project teams with the creative talent necessary to develop, design and build cutting-edge projects. Cranewoods focuses on specialty and high-demand waterfront markets along the Florida coast. For more information, visit http://www.cranewoodsdevelopment.com

Tag Craig

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[First published on the Doing Things Differently blog - #61 - Tighten Our Belts]

http://www.doingthingsdifferently.blogspot.com/

I was the columnist in The London Paper last week, suggesting that the recession is a good thing. Readers vote on whether they want more of you… and 96% did. I also had many comments calling this point of view “refreshing” and “inspiring”. In this, I hear a whispered hope for a move away from ‘business as usual’ to a more enjoyable and equitable way of running our economy.

At its best, this shake-up wake-up call will prompt us to re-prioritise and re-allocate resources. It will make us more aware of where we use money as an excuse to see ourselves as separate from others. Instead of this isolation, we will find ways of leaning in to human energy as our most precious resource and recognise our interdependence.

A great example of this is Liftshare - an organisation that works to bring about sustainable change by encouraging individuals to do things together. There are now 290,000+ people registered and several inspirational stories have emerged.

Sandra from Clacton-on-Sea started car-sharing as a way of saving petrol and impact on the environment and found that “two people who led separate lives have now become great friends, with all the benefits and opportunities that new friendships offer”. They socialise regularly, found they had tons in common, and get to chat, laugh and sing along to 60s and 70s music on the way to and from work.

Similarly with Emma from Swindon, her initial motivations were financial and environmental and says “I have benefited in ways I never imagined, including socially. The company is great, we share ideas, and we exchange knowledge about the local area – where the best markets are, what’s on at the theatre. As I know we have to rely on each other at a particular time of day, I’m much more efficient at work. I can no longer stay late to get things finished so I don’t faff about any more, I just get it done.

And there are wider community benefits, as Clare from Herefordshire describes: “We also pick up and drop off a regular prescription for a friend who has retired and finds it difficult to get to the doctors”.

With lifshare, we see the Triple Bottom Line of a solid, sustainable venture – intending to bring about economic, environmental and societal/inter-personal benefits through its activities. As we tighten our belts and make changes economically, perhaps we’ll also tighten our belts as a community, finding afresh how fulfilling it is to need each other.

Do Things Differently
1) If you had one tenth of your current income, what would you do differently? Make a list. Then assess: in what ways would any of this be preferable? What could you gain as side-effects of these changes? Plato said “Necessity is the mother of invention”. In which ways would your decreased income increase your creativity and innovation?
2) Now return to your current level of income – but keep those new ways in place. What would you do with all that extra money?? Which deeply fulfilling lifestyle benefits would all that abundance bring you?

(c) Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2008

Corrina Gordon-Barnes

www.lucy-pinder.tv Quote: Lucy Pinder, Glamour Model “I’m really pleased to be involved with the Don’t Run The Risk campaign this year. The fact that people misuse level crossings and ignore warning signs is really surprising to me, especially when the consequences are so clear. This kind of campaign is really important to highlight the dangers of taking life-threatening risks to young men.” Quote: Mark Shaoul, Head of marketing, Network Rail “Last year’s campaign had a noticeable effect on recorded incidents at our level crossings, which are one of the key safety points on the rail infrastructure. This year we have taken the campaign a step further, using data to identify specific level crossings for heavy weight local community activity. We’ve also stepped into new territory with a viral designed to reach those elusive 18-24 year old male drivers. All in all, our message is clear, if you run the risk at a level crossing, your chances of surviving if hit by a train is virtually zero” thenewsbureau.co.uk

Technorati Tags: ad, advert, campaign, crossing, don't, level, lucy, network, pinder, rail, risk, run, safety, the

Me beating “The Overseer” Boss on veryhard difficulty on my level 11 alchemist. This game is awesome Well worth 20$! www.torchlightgame.com GO GET IT! Currently the games online in the single player stages but their releasing their level editor soon for us to make our own levels and mods for the game and share with the community. They will also be introducing the MMO side of it sometime in the future. This game is made by the group who brought you diablo and more! check them out and try the game.

http://www.doingthingsdifferently.blogspot.com/

I was the columnist in The London Paper last week, suggesting that the recession is a good thing. Readers vote on whether they want more of you… and 96% did. I also had many comments calling this point of view “refreshing” and “inspiring”. In this, I hear a whispered hope for a move away from ‘business as usual’ to a more enjoyable and equitable way of running our economy.

At its best, this shake-up wake-up call will prompt us to re-prioritise and re-allocate resources. It will make us more aware of where we use money as an excuse to see ourselves as separate from others. Instead of this isolation, we will find ways of leaning in to human energy as our most precious resource and recognise our interdependence.

A great example of this is Liftshare - an organisation that works to bring about sustainable change by encouraging individuals to do things together. There are now 290,000+ people registered and several inspirational stories have emerged.

Sandra from Clacton-on-Sea started car-sharing as a way of saving petrol and impact on the environment and found that “two people who led separate lives have now become great friends, with all the benefits and opportunities that new friendships offer”. They socialise regularly, found they had tons in common, and get to chat, laugh and sing along to 60s and 70s music on the way to and from work.

Similarly with Emma from Swindon, her initial motivations were financial and environmental and says “I have benefited in ways I never imagined, including socially. The company is great, we share ideas, and we exchange knowledge about the local area – where the best markets are, what’s on at the theatre. As I know we have to rely on each other at a particular time of day, I’m much more efficient at work. I can no longer stay late to get things finished so I don’t faff about any more, I just get it done.

And there are wider community benefits, as Clare from Herefordshire describes: “We also pick up and drop off a regular prescription for a friend who has retired and finds it difficult to get to the doctors”.

With lifshare, we see the Triple Bottom Line of a solid, sustainable venture – intending to bring about economic, environmental and societal/inter-personal benefits through its activities. As we tighten our belts and make changes economically, perhaps we’ll also tighten our belts as a community, finding afresh how fulfilling it is to need each other.

Do Things Differently
1) If you had one tenth of your current income, what would you do differently? Make a list. Then assess: in what ways would any of this be preferable? What could you gain as side-effects of these changes? Plato said “Necessity is the mother of invention”. In which ways would your decreased income increase your creativity and innovation?
2) Now return to your current level of income – but keep those new ways in place. What would you do with all that extra money?? Which deeply fulfilling lifestyle benefits would all that abundance bring you?

(c) Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2008

Corrina Gordon-Barnes

Technorati Tags: 11, 720P, alchemist, diablo, difficulty, game, Hard, HD, level, overseer, Torchlight, very

Community Policing: A Viable Panacea for the crime of Burglary

By

Osasumwen Osaghae

 December 2008

The Crime of Burglary

The crime of burglary has several components. Some of the elements have provoked disagreement. One of such elements is what constitutes a dwelling place. Section 111(5) of the powers of Criminal Courts (sentencing) Act, 2000 provides that a domestic burglary committed in respect of a building which is a dwelling. The Article

Meaning of Domestic Burglary: When Is an Outbuilding a Dwelling? (Kalu, 2008) examined the meaning of a dwelling. According to the writer, dwelling is not defined in the 2000 Act. The writer then preferred the common meaning of the phrase dwelling place. The article reviewed the case of R Vs Rodmell in which the accused was convicted of burglary in a shed which the victim protected with burglary alarm. The frontier of dwelling house was extended to include shed. The writer disagreed with the judgment and the rationale for the judgment. The basis for the disagreement was the judge’s omission to define a dwelling house thereby leaving the premise for the judgment to ideological guesses. The writer then suggested that “dwelling” be given its literal and natural meaning of abode (inhabited) instead of the legal forest created by the unclear judgments on the matter.

Swaray (2006) considered the nexus between expectations of burglaries and actual burglaries. There was the belief even though unfounded that the apprehension of people that their homes were likely to be burglarized was misplaced. But the study found otherwise. Titled On the relationship between the public’s worry about safety from burglary and probabilities of burglary: some evidence from simultaneous equation models, the paper flawed the policing policy of the government in dealing with burglary cases and contended that the policing methods are not customized enough to ease the burde
[LBP] Pay the Bill! by Mnniska (Full)

n of burglary on the citizens. The article discussed burglary in the United Kingdom and Wales. The writer employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to identify the relationship between the fear of burglary and burglary itself. The writer argued that environmental variables encompass physical and social dimensions of neighborhoods and public places that people frequent during the course of their daily activities. The effect of the fear is to create insecurity laced with apprehension which in turn reduces quality of life. The author concludes that there is indeed a relation between the cognitive and the emotional aspects of the problem. The study found that there is strong interdependence between households worry about burglary and actual and perceived probabilities of burglary.

Sorensen (2007) considered alternative policing as an option to the traditional policing method. The writer identified three basic approaches to burglary reduction, although the boundaries between them are not always clear. The three approaches are (a) reducing underlying motivations for crime; (b) pro active/problem oriented policing; and (c) situational crime prevention. This article focused on situational crime prevention, which concerns the management, design, and manipulation of the immediate physical and/or social environment with the aim of making crime appear more difficult, more risky, or less rewarding in the eyes of potential offenders. The article is based on burglary in the Scandinavian countries. The writer noted that earlier studies in Burglary did not include evaluation processes for the experiments and so he improved on the state of the literature by including an evaluation process in his study. The article titled Randomized experiment on burglary reduction, argued that multi-tactic approach to reducing burglary may not be the best approach as it obscures the actual working tactic and cloaks an ineffective method with a “working” garb. Sorensen (2006) concluded that a study such as his own may not lead to unambiguous conclusions. He would therefore recommend further enquiries in the area.

Community Policing

Burglary has been on the increase and has tended to defy traditional policing. Community policing has been recommended as a more effective way of dealing with the problem. Community policing is based on the recognition of a geographical unit (city) as consisting of many neighborhoods with particular sets of qualities and service needs. It is a customized model of service delivery tailored to meet the needs of particular communities. Community policing consists of two complementary core components; “community partnership and problem solving”, (Community policing consortium cited in Oittemeier & Wycoff).

Changing policing practices, wider social divisions have led to the transfer of policing responsibilities from the state to an assortment of public, private and voluntary agencies like the community youths, neighborhood watch and the vigilantes, (Johnston as cited in Yarwood, 2007). Policing efforts would fail if the community does not embrace the policing strategy. In the same vain, community policing is bound to fail if the citizens cannot trust the police force in their community. In extreme cases of failed loyalty, the citizens protect the criminals in their midst than they cooperate with criminals in their communities because social commonality as in race, religion and economic standing.

Community policing has taken on different names and conceptualizations such as “neighborhood watch”, “vigilantes” (Fleisher as cited in Fourchard, 2000), “anti-thief and anti-witch organizations, (Heald as cited in Fourchard, 2000). The article titled Histories of Yoruba Vigilantism is a case study of a local form of community policing that is in use in the Southern Nigeria city of Ibadan. There is a mixture of failed loyalty on the part of the people in the city and a loss of confidence. The result is that the people are more comfortable with non state policing comprising the locals in the society with an effective information network which was found to be lacking in the operations of the state police. Fourchard (2000) argued that the rise in the activities of vigilantes is an indication of the failure of the traditional policing model and a remarkable increase in the level of crime in the society among other crimes, burglary. ‘Vigilante’ in Nigeria is a term initially used by the police in the mid-1980s as a substitute for an older practice present since the colonial period and referred to as the ‘hunter guard’ or ‘night guard’ system. Colonial administration in western Nigeria either tacitly authorized it or legalized it, giving rise to an enduring continuity of these non-state forms of policing. The article traced the origins of Vigilantes to pre-colonial Nigeria when the British found it hard to curb crimes. The concept of the community has been evolving constantly with rules and safeguards being put in place to ensure that the powers were not abused. The rules and safeguards are understandable giving the non state nature of the vigilantes. One of the challenges of community policing is the potential for the abuse of the power conferred on the local policing agents. In contrast to the argument of Fourchard (2000), some of the vigilantes have themselves become the criminals because of state approval of their activities and the arms some of them are given. The article concluded that some characteristics of the community policing method in Southern Nigeria have remained to this day and have had the impact of reducing crimes such as burglary in the city concerned. Some of the practices are the curfew system, erection of gates along the streets to reduce access to and from the streets. The Curfews ensure that people stay more at home with various times set for the curfews. In most cases, people were forbidden from moving about from 8.00 pm to 6.00 am. This made a lot of sense since most of the burglaries (burglaries used in loose sense) were committed at night. Even when the curfews were stopped, the people still return home at about the time set for the curfews feeling that it was not safe to be out after the set curfew period. This had the effect of reducing break ins and burglaries as the criminals refrained from going into the homes where there were people. More than any thing else, the article shows that community policing in association with other safety precautions would reduce burglary but not in isolation.

Among several theories, there is the theory which states that  when geographical locations are reduced, crime watch is made easier. A body of theory predicts that increases in the aggregate risk of apprehension within geographic territories may lead to crime reduction. The theory has variously been referred to as structural deterrence, (Sampson & Cohen, as cited in Kane, 2006), or ecological deterrence, (Bursik, Grasmick & Chamlin, as cited in Kane 2006). The theory refers basically to community policing, (Kane, 2006). The article titled On the Limits of Social Control: Structural Deterrence and the Policing of “Suppressible” Crimes discussed the theory of deterrence and its waning influence in explaining criminal propensity. The article examined the development of threat estimates that people make about their local environments and the processes by which they may transmit those threat estimates to people within their social networks. Researchers have applied the threat estimate framework to such environmental hazards as floods, traffic accidents, fires, and oil spills, generally finding that increases in perceptions of risk along the hazardous outcomes are often associated with changes in individuals’ behaviors within discrete environmental settings. The study attempted to fill these gaps by examining whether variations in the risk of apprehension across geographic territories has predicted variations in subsequent crime rates (robbery and burglary) within police precincts over time in a major urban setting. The study integrated the primary methodological and theoretical advances highlighted in the macro-deterrence literature by specifying a longitudinal design, using the community (i.e., police precinct) as the unit of analysis, and incorporating arrest activities independent of known crimes and clearances as the apprehension threat variable.

Conclusion

Community policing remains the most viable option for curbing burglary and other property crimes. As indicated above, the system will not work in isolation but in conjunction with other measures presents a viable option for combating burglary in the society. Community policing would depend largely on environmental influences in order to be effective. Community policing is based largely on interpersonal relationships and information sharing between community inhabitants and the policing authority. If there is at anytime, a loss of confidence or a communication gap, community policing may fail. This is one feature working in favor of public policing in that it does not have to rely on cooperation from the citizens wholly

References

Fourchard, L. (2008) A new name for an old practice: Vigilantes in south-western

 Nigeria Africa 78 Vol. 1

Kalu, A (2008) Comment: Meaning of Domestic Burglary: When is an outbuilding

            a dwelling? Crime Policy Report Vol. 3

Kane, R. J. (2006) On the Limits of Social Control: Structural Deterrence and the

Policing of “Suppressible” Crimes Justice Quarterly, Vol. 23 No. 2

Moore, 2003 retrieved from

http://www.policeforum.org/upload/BottomLineofPolicing_576683258_1229200520031.pdf on 07/15/08

Oittemeier & Wykoff retrieved from

            http://www.policeforum.org/upload/perfeval_570119206_12292005152535.pdf

 on  08/1/08

Ruth, R. S. & Reitz, K. R. (2003) The Challenge of crime: Rethinking our response,

            Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press

Sorensen, D. W. M. (2007) Scandinavian Prospects for a Place-Based Randomized

Experiment on Burglary Reduction, Journal of Scandinavian Studies in criminology and Crime Prevention, Vol. 8

Yarwood, R. (2007) The Geographies of policing Progress in Human Geography

            Vol. 31 No. 4

Osasumwen Osaghae

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You have a Big Bill. A HUGE Bill! Now,in order to pay it,you have been sent out in the Jungle in a Quest to find a Diamond to pay it with… Re-recorded for littlebigland in accordance with the Sack-it-to-me community Level Picks.

Community Policing: A Viable Panacea for the crime of Burglary

By

Osasumwen Osaghae

 December 2008

The Crime of Burglary

The crime of burglary has several components. Some of the elements have provoked disagreement. One of such elements is what constitutes a dwelling place. Section 111(5) of the powers of Criminal Courts (sentencing) Act, 2000 provides that a domestic burglary committed in respect of a building which is a dwelling. The Article

Meaning of Domestic Burglary: When Is an Outbuilding a Dwelling? (Kalu, 2008) examined the meaning of a dwelling. According to the writer, dwelling is not defined in the 2000 Act. The writer then preferred the common meaning of the phrase dwelling place. The article reviewed the case of R Vs Rodmell in which the accused was convicted of burglary in a shed which the victim protected with burglary alarm. The frontier of dwelling house was extended to include shed. The writer disagreed with the judgment and the rationale for the judgment. The basis for the disagreement was the judge’s omission to define a dwelling house thereby leaving the premise for the judgment to ideological guesses. The writer then suggested that “dwelling” be given its literal and natural meaning of abode (inhabited) instead of the legal forest created by the unclear judgments on the matter.

Swaray (2006) considered the nexus between expectations of burglaries and actual burglaries. There was the belief even though unfounded that the apprehension of people that their homes were likely to be burglarized was misplaced. But the study found otherwise. Titled On the relationship between the public’s worry about safety from burglary and probabilities of burglary: some evidence from simultaneous equation models, the paper flawed the policing policy of the government in dealing with burglary cases and contended that the policing methods are not customized enough to ease the burden of burglary on the citizens. The article discussed burglary in the United Kingdom and Wales. The writer employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to identify the relationship between the fear of burglary and burglary itself. The writer argued that environmental variables encompass physical and social dimensions of neighborhoods and public places that people frequent during the course of their daily activities. The effect of the fear is to create insecurity laced with apprehension which in turn reduces quality of life. The author concludes that there is indeed a relation between the cognitive and the emotional aspects of the problem. The study found that there is strong interdependence between households worry about burglary and actual and perceived probabilities of burglary.

Sorensen (2007) considered alternative policing as an option to the traditional policing method. The writer identified three basic approaches to burglary reduction, although the boundaries between them are not always clear. The three approaches are (a) reducing underlying motivations for crime; (b) pro active/problem oriented policing; and (c) situational crime prevention. This article focused on situational crime prevention, which concerns the management, design, and manipulation of the immediate physical and/or social environment with the aim of making crime appear more difficult, more risky, or less rewarding in the eyes of potential offenders. The article is based on burglary in the Scandinavian countries. The writer noted that earlier studies in Burglary did not include evaluation processes for the experiments and so he improved on the state of the literature by including an evaluation process in his study. The article titled Randomized experiment on burglary reduction, argued that multi-tactic approach to reducing burglary may not be the best approach as it obscures the actual working tactic and cloaks an ineffective method with a “working” garb. Sorensen (2006) concluded that a study such as his own may not lead to unambiguous conclusions. He would therefore recommend further enquiries in the area.

Community Policing

Burglary has been on the increase and has tended to defy traditional policing. Community policing has been recommended as a more effective way of dealing with the problem. Community policing is based on the recognition of a geographical unit (city) as consisting of many neighborhoods with particular sets of qualities and service needs. It is a customized model of service delivery tailored to meet the needs of particular communities. Community policing consists of two complementary core components; “community partnership and problem solving”, (Community policing consortium cited in Oittemeier & Wycoff).

Changing policing practices, wider social divisions have led to the transfer of policing responsibilities from the state to an assortment of public, private and voluntary agencies like the community youths, neighborhood watch and the vigilantes, (Johnston as cited in Yarwood, 2007). Policing efforts would fail if the community does not embrace the policing strategy. In the same vain, community policing is bound to fail if the citizens cannot trust the police force in their community. In extreme cases of failed loyalty, the citizens protect the criminals in their midst than they cooperate with criminals in their communities because social commonality as in race, religion and economic standing.

Community policing has taken on different names and conceptualizations such as “neighborhood watch”, “vigilantes” (Fleisher as cited in Fourchard, 2000), “anti-thief and anti-witch organizations, (Heald as cited in Fourchard, 2000). The article titled Histories of Yoruba Vigilantism is a case study of a local form of community policing that is in use in the Southern Nigeria city of Ibadan. There is a mixture of failed loyalty on the part of the people in the city and a loss of confidence. The result is that the people are more comfortable with non state policing comprising the locals in the society with an effective information network which was found to be lacking in the operations of the state police. Fourchard (2000) argued that the rise in the activities of vigilantes is an indication of the failure of the traditional policing model and a remarkable increase in the level of crime in the society among other crimes, burglary. ‘Vigilante’ in Nigeria is a term initially used by the police in the mid-1980s as a substitute for an older practice present since the colonial period and referred to as the ‘hunter guard’ or ‘night guard’ system. Colonial administration in western Nigeria either tacitly authorized it or legalized it, giving rise to an enduring continuity of these non-state forms of policing. The article traced the origins of Vigilantes to pre-colonial Nigeria when the British found it hard to curb crimes. The concept of the community has been evolving constantly with rules and safeguards being put in place to ensure that the powers were not abused. The rules and safeguards are understandable giving the non state nature of the vigilantes. One of the challenges of community policing is the potential for the abuse of the power conferred on the local policing agents. In contrast to the argument of Fourchard (2000), some of the vigilantes have themselves become the criminals because of state approval of their activities and the arms some of them are given. The article concluded that some characteristics of the community policing method in Southern Nigeria have remained to this day and have had the impact of reducing crimes such as burglary in the city concerned. Some of the practices are the curfew system, erection of gates along the streets to reduce access to and from the streets. The Curfews ensure that people stay more at home with various times set for the curfews. In most cases, people were forbidden from moving about from 8.00 pm to 6.00 am. This made a lot of sense since most of the burglaries (burglaries used in loose sense) were committed at night. Even when the curfews were stopped, the people still return home at about the time set for the curfews feeling that it was not safe to be out after the set curfew period. This had the effect of reducing break ins and burglaries as the criminals refrained from going into the homes where there were people. More than any thing else, the article shows that community policing in association with other safety precautions would reduce burglary but not in isolation.

Among several theories, there is the theory which states that  when geographical locations are reduced, crime watch is made easier. A body of theory predicts that increases in the aggregate risk of apprehension within geographic territories may lead to crime reduction. The theory has variously been referred to as structural deterrence, (Sampson & Cohen, as cited in Kane, 2006), or ecological deterrence, (Bursik, Grasmick & Chamlin, as cited in Kane 2006). The theory refers basically to community policing, (Kane, 2006). The article titled On the Limits of Social Control: Structural Deterrence and the Policing of “Suppressible” Crimes discussed the theory of deterrence and its waning influence in explaining criminal propensity. The article examined the development of threat estimates that people make about their local environments and the processes by which they may transmit those threat estimates to people within their social networks. Researchers have applied the threat estimate framework to such environmental hazards as floods, traffic accidents, fires, and oil spills, generally finding that increases in perceptions of risk along the hazardous outcomes are often associated with changes in individuals’ behaviors within discrete environmental settings. The study attempted to fill these gaps by examining whether variations in the risk of apprehension across geographic territories has predicted variations in subsequent crime rates (robbery and burglary) within police precincts over time in a major urban setting. The study integrated the primary methodological and theoretical advances highlighted in the macro-deterrence literature by specifying a longitudinal design, using the community (i.e., police precinct) as the unit of analysis, and incorporating arrest activities independent of known crimes and clearances as the apprehension threat variable.

Conclusion

Community policing remains the most viable option for curbing burglary and other property crimes. As indicated above, the system will not work in isolation but in conjunction with other measures presents a viable option for combating burglary in the society. Community policing would depend largely on environmental influences in order to be effective. Community policing is based largely on interpersonal relationships and information sharing between community inhabitants and the policing authority. If there is at anytime, a loss of confidence or a communication gap, community policing may fail. This is one feature working in favor of public policing in that it does not have to rely on cooperation from the citizens wholly

References

Fourchard, L. (2008) A new name for an old practice: Vigilantes in south-western

 Nigeria Africa 78 Vol. 1

Kalu, A (2008) Comment: Meaning of Domestic Burglary: When is an outbuilding

            a dwelling? Crime Policy Report Vol. 3

Kane, R. J. (2006) On the Limits of Social Control: Structural Deterrence and the

Policing of “Suppressible” Crimes Justice Quarterly, Vol. 23 No. 2

Moore, 2003 retrieved from

http://www.policeforum.org/upload/BottomLineofPolicing_576683258_1229200520031.pdf on 07/15/08

Oittemeier & Wykoff retrieved from

            http://www.policeforum.org/upload/perfeval_570119206_12292005152535.pdf

 on  08/1/08

Ruth, R. S. & Reitz, K. R. (2003) The Challenge of crime: Rethinking our response,

            Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press

Sorensen, D. W. M. (2007) Scandinavian Prospects for a Place-Based Randomized

Experiment on Burglary Reduction, Journal of Scandinavian Studies in criminology and Crime Prevention, Vol. 8

Yarwood, R. (2007) The Geographies of policing Progress in Human Geography

            Vol. 31 No. 4

Osasumwen Osaghae

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Attracting potential residents from all over the world, the city of Nanaimo on the island of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada is quickly gaining the reputation of being the source of many utopian modeled intentional communities. A small city of 79,000 residents, Nanaimo prides itself on it’s sophisticated cultural setting comprised of many artists, musicians and craftsmen, with an emphasis on higher education.

As an extension of the alternative lifestyles that often accompanies a community of artists and existentialistic thinkers, many of the residential communities are modeled after the intentional community system. In an intentional community system, new members may be selected by committees of existing members after initial meetings during group events and accepted new members may be subjected to a period of probation, usually of six months, during which time the permanent community members decide if the new member is fitting into their communal way of living. This level of community living extends to the practice of sharing of tasks and belongings that are of benefit to the entire community. Different intentional communities in Nanaimo possess different degrees of communal style living.

Originated in Denmark, the formation of intentional communities is designed to provide a universal sense of responsibility and belonging to every community member. Many communities have an open door environment where individual homes are connected by common interior walkways, and all residents are treated as members of an extended family.

The natural beauty of the island, in conjunction with man made amenities including possessing the world’s largest artificial reef for Scuba Diving, make Nanaimo a lucrative proposition for purchasing residential property. The residents of Nanaimo also enjoy the readily accessible pleasures of kayaking, rock climbing and cave exploring as well as fishing, golfing and hiking in any one of the island’s ten major parks.

If the benefits of a communal style of living are appealing to you, exploring the possibilities of owning a residence in Nanaimo may lead you to a better way of life. As there are specific variables particular to each community property in Nanaimo, conferring with a local CoHousing Real Estate Agent will help you to identify which of the communities will fit most seamlessly into your desire for this lifestyle. Meanwhile, there are many website listings for properties in the Nanaimo region which include property photographs and descriptions of surrounding areas. In many intentional communities, residents each own an individual house which has all of the private amenities you would expect in a residential dwelling. In addition to individual property ownership, each resident jointly owns all of the land in the community as well as common area buildings where community functions and communal meals take place.

Once your property choices have been narrowed down, a visit to Nanaimo with your CoHousing Real Estate Agent will be in order to meet with the community members, and immerse yourself in the spirit of this close knit community that has all of the benefits of a small town and retains the connections to the major metropolitan areas and advantages.

Shane Keller