CRJ3024-Criminal Justice

Parks have always played a significant role in the American urban life. After entering the park, the scene was that children were playing in the playground, a group of teenagers was engaged in playing tennis and on another side newly mothers were with their toddlers. In the urban areas of America, the parks majorly had playground. Very few parks had facilities that included recreation centers, golf courses and swimming pools. It would be expensive to provide such facilities in a sub-urban park. Money for the local park operations is generally derived from the general fund in most of the communities (Harris-Kojetin). As I noticed, that this park was majorly filled with residential people and looked safe. There were individuals belonging to different age categories. Parks needs to be safe for people to use them. People were spending time and roaming around in the park without feeling unsafe and insecure since parks are created for people to visit. Perception of safety can be more essential in influencing human behavior than actual crime statistics. This particular park that I visited had a number of features that contributed as to how a park feels safe. The physical design of the park was appealing as it was clear and open and had a welcoming entry. Appropriate and sufficient lighting and signage was provided. It was a well maintained park as well as it had good programming and involvement of the community that me feel that it was a safe area. The standard of safety in parks have been increasing as measured depending on whether women feel safe in that particular location or not (Frumkin). This park was designed and planned in such a way that it could increase safety from assault, providing safety officials and emergency help or buttons for summoning assistance. Everyone present there were feeling free and safe in the neighborhood park. The scenario looked like a community. Therefore, neighborhood parks have been receiving increased attention and valuation as significant community places of refuge in highly populated areas (Lapham).

People were roaming around in this park in hurdles and looked relax as it was their way of recreation. The surrounding was pretty and there were flowers and trees everywhere around the park making it look all eco-friendly and colorful. A separate open space was also provided for the cars to get parked specially for people from some other neighborhood wanted to visit. As I noticed further while taking a walk around inside the park, there was a lane just meant for physical activities. While coming out of the park, a car in the parking area caught my glance (Bancroft). That car, which was parked in the parking lot did not seem familiar to me. The vehicle appeared to be very suspicious to me. The car looked very strange, as it did not appear to be like the normal ones. It was a very tiny car, black in color. Every part of the car was black in color and it was two-seated car, which is very unusual to find in a local park of a sub-urban or urban area. It was easy to spot this car and it looked suspicious since the rest of the cars looked different and normal. This particular small black car was parked in the parking area for a long duration. The person who I observed for duration of ten seconds looked very happy and enthusiastic with the environment of the park. This particular individual seemed to be a regular visitor of this local park. She was feeling safe and enjoyed her recreational time at the park. She seemed to be middle-aged woman as per my observation. She goes their every evening for a walk and to enjoy the beautiful colorful flowers and greenery. She felt safe in the protected environment of this park and therefore visited frequently. The most significant feature of this park that I came across was that it was safe and protected.

References:

Bancroft, Carolyn, et al. "Association of proximity and density of parks and objectively measured physical activity in the United States: A systematic review." Social Science & Medicine 138 (2015): 22-30.

Frumkin, Howard. Environmental health: from global to local. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.

Harris-Kojetin, Lauren, et al. "Long-term care providers and services users in the United States: data from the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers, 2013-2014." Vital & health statistics. Series 3, Analytical and epidemiological studies 38 (2016): x-xii.

Lapham, Sandra C., et al. "How important is perception of safety to park use? A four-city survey." Urban Studies 53.12 (2016): 2624-2636.