Month: November 2016

My group and I shared the results from our interviews during class last Monday. We shared many ideas such as: the stakeholders involved, how crime impacts the Austin community, some history of Austin’s crime, what makes crime so complex, and the main issues that surround our wicked problem. Considering that all of our interviewees came from different backgrounds, they each had distinct perspectives. We all shared our new insights to the issue, and that eventually led us to begin the process of brainstorming for our final project. For our final project, we’ve brainstormed that we want to do a poster. The poster will focus on the causes of crime and ways to improve the overall crime rate here in Austin. Aside from that, we will include facts and statistics from Austin. Considering that we all interviewed people with different perspectives, we all got several new insights on the issue, so, we thought that perhaps adding some quotes from the interviewees on the poster would be a neat idea. Though, we haven’t discussed that very much so we’re still trying to decide. Overall, I feel like we have a good understanding of what’s expected of us on this project. We’ve all been contributing and working well as a team, so I’m excited to finally start our final project.

Bearing in mind that for our wicked problem we are focused on crime, I figured an attorney would be a great candidate for the interview. I decided to reach out to an Austin criminal defense attorney, Rick Flores. Rick Flores certainly had a unique perspective when it comes to crime, which gave me a whole new insight to the issue in the process. For instance, before the interview I hadn’t thought of teachers or students being stakeholders involved, or how crime is intertwined with the human brain and emotion. After getting Rick Flores’s feedback I realized that crime is a lot more complicated that what I had assumed. Especially here in Austin, with the rapid population growth because the more people an area has, the more prone the area is to criminal activity. After the interview, I do feel like I have a better understanding of the issue in relation to Austin. Knowing what type of people are affected by crime, what are the main reasons for crime, and some history about it surely brought up new questions that as a group we must think about now. Ultimately, I understand that crime is something that can’t entirely be eliminated, but there are things that can be done to decrease the crime rate in Austin, all of which will be beneficial to Austin residents and the community as a whole.