Introduction

INTRODUCTION “ Where the population is big, the crime is more likely to occur” this explains what could be the problem of our college students nowadays, with a very high population in Metro Manila where almost all universities are located. Increasing crime rates in Metro Manila is a big factor for each and every college students who are most likely affected by those occurring incidents. For the past two years, crime rate in Metro Manila are sharply increasing and one of the primary victims of this increasing crime rates are college students. A big portion of the population in Metro Manila is teenagers which ages ranges from 16 to 19 years of age. It is clearly evident that most of the victims of such crimes are students from every university in Metro Manila. For every student who most likely to know this facts from news and internet, may lead to something that can affect their own capability and performance as an individual. For victims and non-victims it may cause them fear and other factors which will create a bad impression about the condition of the security in Metro Manila. As mentioned earlier, the most victims came from universities. For that reason, distinctive effects of increasing crime rates shall be known and enumerated. Everyone should know what could be the effect of this trauma to the physical and mental condition of each victim. It may serve as a guide for those teenagers that were unaware of what is really the big deal in going alone in Metro Manila as a student and as an individual. In accordance with the mission of Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT), its students must be aware of the scenarios currently happening to our society. Mentioned as well, the Institute engages in research with high socio-economic impact and reports on the results of such inquiries. That’s the reason why, we must have a contribution to disseminate information regarding the crime rates in Metro Manila that involves the lives of students. BODY Crime basically is any act which is against one’s will or against one’s rights as a human person and is punishable by law. It is an act that is trying to invade over someone’s property or trying to take away something which rightfully belongs to a person. Crime happens in many forms, and has different effects. Typically, crime is kept under control by processes of the law and law enforcement. However, crime has a tremendous effect on the society and the people within it as a whole. Every day, there is crime all over the world. Crime is like a thief in the night, that common people will never know when it will happen. But in the bright side of it, it can be prevented from happening. Crime as explained by (Parks, 2009) is an act that violates the rights of a person, or group of persons, or their property. It can also be defined as an act that could endanger the lives or safety of the public in general. An example of that type of crime could include the firing of a weapon within the vicinity of a certain place. By firing that weapon in a populated area, you endanger the lives of the people within the range of the firearm. Although you didn’t intentionally killed the person who will be hit by the bullet, still you are the one responsible for the reckless act of firing a weapon over a populated area. Every year, crime rates are becoming higher and higher. As the country develops and develops, so as the criminals develop too. As the technology helps make life of man more convenient, so as for the lives of the criminals too by means of making it easier for them to perform their ” evil” mission or objectives with the aid of technology. The increase of crime rates are uncontrollable nowadays mainly because of the development and evolution of the modern-day generation. As the years pass by, more and more innovations are coming to the society. The tendency for that is to arouse more minds of the people to perform such crimes. Because we wouldn’t want to stop these innovations from coming and improving, it also means that we wouldn’t want to stop the gradual increase of crime rates every year that passes by. Crime rates are highest when it is peak seasons. Especially during Christmas season, where most people has a lot of money, crime rates as we may notice are on its highest point. Knowing that every Christmas there’s a lot of bonuses on the salaries of employees, there are also a lot of criminals together with their strategies aims to grab a share on all the monies of the people. Although crime is very eminent during peak seasons, people still experience crimes every day. There has never been a day when not even a single crime occurred. Because of that, society has enacted laws designed to protect every man, woman and child. The government, however, are making actions to prevent and hopefully to avoid these crimes to happen. But the question is what really is the reason behind these crimes? What are the things that trigger these crimes to happen? Society nowadays is becoming more and more engrossed to technology. College students to be specific tend to have a lot of gadgets when they reach college. And they tend to have a lot of money because they think they are already old enough to be like grown-ups to budget their own money. College students cover a big part of the overall victims of these everyday crimes that happens everywhere we go. Nowadays, having a phone isn’t a luxury anymore but a necessity instead, the same thing goes with having a car. People tend to buy all of the latest trends of phones, clothes, cars and etc. Even High School Students at present time, already has a very expensive phone like iPhones. These material things and abundance of money among the students are the roots of the different forms of crime. These are the ones that trigger these crimes to initiate. Crime is not just the kind of thing we see in the evening news. It is as real as it gets and it doesn’t even choose its own victims. Many countries in the world are experiencing an increase in crime rates, even on an international level there is an ever increasing threat of violence and crime. In this part of the paper, we will be talking about the most common committed crimes, particularly in the Philippines. Some of the most common committed crimes in the Philippines are assault, theft, robbery, rape, homicide, and car theft. According to Paul Tappan, criminologist, crime is defined as “ an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law …, committed without defence or justification, and sanctioned by the state as a felony or misdemeanour. ” In the article Crime and Justice in the Philippines by JR Lopez Gonzales, he stated that on the information released by the National Police Commission, every 100, 000 people there are 106 victims of crimes in the country. We will define each type of crime for us to learn more about it. Law. dictionary. com define assault as “ In criminal and tort law, an act, usually consisting of a threat or attempt to inflict bodily injury upon another person, coupled with the apparent present ability to succeed in carrying out the threat or the attempt if not prevented, that causes the person to have a reasonable fear or apprehension of immediate harmful or offensive contact. No intent to cause battery or the fear or apprehension is required so long as the victim is placed in reasonable apprehension or fear. No actual physical injury is needed to establish an assault, but if there is any physical contact, the act constitutes both an assault and a battery. ” On example of direct assault is the case of Fabros, MMDA traffic enforcer, who is assaulted by a motorist, named Robert Carabuena. Fabros flagged down Carabuena for a traffic violation. Carabuena stopped and got down his car and assaulted the MMDA officer for no reason. The second type is theft, Merriam-webster. com defines theft as “ the act of stealing;  specifically:  the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. ” Therefore, any material taken by someone from someone without the permission of the owner can be theft. The third is robbery, Washington State Legislature stated that “ A person commits robbery when he or she unlawfully takes personal property from the person of another or in his or her presence against his or her will by the use or threatened use of immediate force, violence, or fear of injury to that person or his or her property or the person or property of anyone. Such force or fear must be used to obtain or retain possession of the property, or to prevent or overcome resistance to the taking; in either of which cases the degree of force is immaterial. Such taking constitutes robbery whenever it appears that, although the taking was fully completed without the knowledge of the person from whom taken, such knowledge was prevented by the use of force or fear. ” RAINN defines rape as ” forced sexual intercourse, including vaginal, anal, or oral penetration. Penetration may be by a body part or an object.” To clarify: ” Rape victims may be forced through threats or physical means. In about 8 out of 10 rapes, no weapon is used other than physical force. Anyone may be a victim of rape: women, men or children, straight or gay. ” I think rape is the most common crimes in the Philippines. The past few years, almost every day, the Philippine news reports several rape cases. According to the law. yourdictionary. com the general definition of homicide is “ The killing of a human being, committed by another. ” And there are three types of homicides, justifiable homicide which defined as “ The killing of a human excused by the law as appropriate or necessary; for example, in self-defense. “, second is negligent homicide which defined as “ The killing of another by an act of irresponsibility or lack of attention to duty, rather than by intentional act. “, and lastly, vehicular homicide which defined as “ The killing of another by operation of a motor vehicle; generally the driver’s acts must be more than just negligent; for example, in a motor vehicle accident arising from the intoxication of the driver, where another is killed. ” The last type is car theft or auto theft. Auto theft is defined as the theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. This offense category includes the theft of automobiles, trucks, buses, motorcycles, motor scooters, and snowmobiles. This definition excludes the taking of a motor vehicle for temporary use by persons having lawful access. In the Philippines, where people have their own technological gadgets and where some common crimes occur just like hold ups, sexual assaults, etc. it becomes all too easy to change and even ruin peoples’ lives without a moment’s hesitation. According to health Nurses (2010, November 17), victims of crime report to be the effects of both actual crime and the fear of crime on their physical and psychological health and what actions they take if there is any to deal with these effects. There are serious negative health effects of a considerable minority of those students who are victims of crime. The vast majority of the victims did not initiate any health intervention. Second, a large minority of the victims do not report the crimes to the police. Third, a majority of both victims and non-victims suffered psychological negative effects from the fear of crime. Fourth, there is a huge gender imbalance among those affected by crime with female students much more fearful of crime than men. Moreover, female students were much more likely to use specific strategies to lower the risk of crime. There can be many effects that can occur to people, specifically college students that had been victimized of such crimes. They can be physically, emotionally or financially injured. The ones that fall on physical injuries could be cuts, bruises, wounds, contracting a sexually transmitted disease, etc. Some of the emotional injuries are insomnia, fear, guilt, feeling alone, confusion, depression, increased risk-taking behaviors and recklessness, difficulty concentrating or decreased school performance, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Substance Abuse, Self-Harm, Depression, Sleep and Eating Disorders, Suicide, etc. and those financial injuries could be medical expenses, legal fees, loss of wages, money or property stolen, and other expenses incurred through hospital and doctor visits and participation in legal proceedings, etc. these effects remind students that these injuries can be serious and long-lasting. Anyone who has ever been victimized and that includes survivors of crime,  accidents, childhood abuse, political imprisonment, warfare, and so on must decide whether or not to forgive the one that committed the crime. It is either the victim decides to forgive the person who hurt them or they hold on to bitterness and anger. Holding on to bitterness and anger can cause problems of their own. Being able to forgive your victimizer is a crucial part of your healing. “ I’ve seen individuals, for example, who have lost a family member because of a crime. The survivors’ anger and desire for revenge poison their entire beings. They so focus on what they’ve lost, and what they wanted the dead person to be, and do,  for them,  that they completely miss the opportunity they’ve been given to learn about real love. Instead, they seem to believe that hatred, even to the point of capital punishment, will satisfy their thirst for vengeance and will somehow bring them healing. So, with hardened hearts and stiff lips, they say, “ I’ll never forgive. ” And the sad thing is that in wishing to send someone to hell they end up sending themselves there as well. ” As Laufer, A. said in the book called Journal of Traumatic Stress. Due to crimes committed in the Philippines, the different communities are also being affected. People can become increasingly concerned or afraid, People lose loved ones, Businesses might close or move away, People may move away to live somewhere else, People might eventually isolate themselves from each other, destroying the spirit of the community and surrendering control to criminals. What can we do to prevent these effects to be within those who are being victimized? As a student, we should tell those who are being victimized, whatever the reasons for violence, there is something in fact many things they can do about it. One thing they can do is to learn how to help a friend who is a victim of crime. According to K. A. Myers (August 2006) there are some evidences and research findings that shows that crime has negative effect on the school performances of college students. Studies have shown that young people who witnessed or are victims of crimes often suffer emotional consequences as severe as post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, hopelessness, and expectations of a violent death and other generalized psychological distress or anxiety. This also shown that people who are victims of crime lack interest in attending class and goal for direction . Because of crimes, these undesired and unexpected events college students’ mind are being bothered and confused, which then cause unexplained feelings within themselves and that cause them to focus on things that are not really needed in life or are not necessary in the future. Due to the effects of crime college students looses focus and interest in studying and attending class and furthermore these causes them be depressed and totally lose track in academic tasks and no longer perform well. Jenkins and Bell (1994) studied the relationship between witnessing violence and personal experience among students. The simple way to look at the relationship of crime and academic achievement is to see how low or high the academic performances is being affected by crime and violence. Fitzpatrick (1999) found out that ” students who performed well academically were significantly less likely to be victims of robbers, snatchers, crime and violence while students who had a negative view of going to school were likely to be victims of crime”. This simply explained that crime and violence cause severe effects on student’s performance in school. K. A. Myers (August 2006) said that other researchers have posed the question of whether school violence and outdoor crimes is related to the poor academic performances of students in school and this is because of external behavior. How he view this relationship becomes important since preventing crimes and delinquency could focus on either those students who perform poorly or those students who have behavior problems. There is also a study suggest that early intervention with college students exhibiting problems may decrease delinquency and any psychological problems and also increase academic performances. Helping them recover and absorb the situation will calm their mind, this will synthesized them to understand that its nothing to think deeply and worry so much. Another effect of crime is that it develops fear to the victims. The results imply that the effects from crime on the mental health of a sizeable minority of university students can be profoundly negative. But, not withstanding such negative health effects, most the victims reported that they did not take any action to address their crime-induced health problems. Furthermore, more than one-third of victims did not report the crime to the police. P. Morrall (May 2010) had a research that states crime had a much greater impact on women than on men. Across a number of researches women appeared to be more distressed and bothered by the crime and more reported specific avoidance behavior. This concluded that crime greatly affect women than men. The fear of crime affected negatively the psychological health of a majority of both men, women, victims and non-victims. However, there was a large gender imbalance among those who fear crime (the majority were female). Both actual victim and the fear of being a victim were reported as having a considerable effect on behavior, especially that of female students. The high level of risk avoidance points towards a gender issue with regard to social inclusion/exclusion associated with crime that requires further investigation. SUMMARY An act which is against one’s desire and is condemned by law and the act that could threaten the lives or safety of the public in general is called crime. Crime is when people try to take away other people’s belongings. People can be affected in many different ways when they become a victim of crime. It has different effects and it also happens in many forms. Some people, specifically college students that had been victimized of such crimes can be the ones who are being affected. Some emotions such as anger or fear are common while some victims don’t react this way. Sometimes people feel quite normal for a while and then things may start to fall apart. Others may have physical symptoms such as lack of sleep or feeling ill. Everyone is individual in how they respond. For short, these students who’ve been victimized can be physically, emotionally or financially injured. Also, in a considerable minority of those students who are victims of crime, most of them would have had serious negative health effects. College students nowadays tend to have a plenty of gadgets and mobile phones when they reach college. And they tend to have a lot of money. High School Students at present time, already has a very expensive phone like iPhones. These things and availability of money among the students are the cause of the different forms of crime. These are the ones that tempt these criminals. College students contribute a big part to the overall victims of these crimes that happens anywhere we go. The different communities are also being disturbed, due to crimes committed in our country. People can become increasingly distressed or alarmed, People lose loved ones, Businesses might close or move away, People may move away to live somewhere else, People might eventually isolate themselves from each other, spoiling the spirit of the community and surrendering control to criminals. There is crime everyday all over the world. Crime rates are becoming higher every year. It is because of the advancement and improvement of the modern-day generation, the increase of crime rates is uncontrollable nowadays. People will never know when crime will happen or when it is being planned but it can be prevented from happening on the positive side. During peak season, specifically Christmas season is when crime rates are highest. These seasons are where most people have a lot of money because they receive a lot of bonuses on their salaries. Even though crime is very prominent during these seasons, many of the people here in our country experience these atrocious crimes every day. Society has mandated laws designed to protect every single person alive here on earth whether they are men, women or children. The government, however, are making actions to avoid and hopefully to prevent these crimes to happen. The ones that trigger these crimes are these material things and abundance of money among the students. People are easily influenced to buy all of the latest trends of phones, clothes, cars and etc. College students think they are already old enough to be like grown-ups to budget their own money and they tend to have a lot of gadgets. That is why they cover a big part of the overall victims of these everyday crimes that happens everywhere we go. Recommendations After a thorough analysis of the research, the research team came up with 3 recommendations for the future researchers who till take a similar or related research topic. The research team suggests the future researchers to enlarge or take a bigger sample size of respondents to be able to have a wider range of results and also to come up with a lower margin of error to have concrete evidence and to come up with a very good and precise conclusion. Second is to use another type of research style in order for the future researchers to produce a unique outcome for their research. Instead of a quantitative research style, the future researchers may use qualitative research style that may give them quality evidence in order to improve their research paper. For the last, the research team would like to encourage the future researcher to have a quality time in gathering data for their research and refer to a more and quality-reliable source that can enhance and give more information for the research. Conclusion Knowing the effects of the crime rates on the academic performance of the students will help people especially parents of the victims namely the college students, to understand what kind of problem and hardships their children are undergoing. Moreover, it will help people know the precautions and primary aids whenever such phenomenon happens so that parents will be able to guide and help their children with such traumatic experience. One may think that a crime is just a simple thing that normally happens every day on the streets, and might actually think that it doesn’t have a big impact on the victim, but it’s not. There’s actually a big impact on the victims especially on their psychological status. Because of this, it pays a large impact on their academic performance that unable them from performing well on class. The traumatic experiences bring them to the point that they do not want to come to school, and that they do not want to socialize with other beings. 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