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Prevention and Surveillance - Coggle Diagram
Prevention and Surveillance
Surveillance
Foucault
2 types of discipline:
Sovereign power
: typical until the 19th century, when the monarch had absolute power over people. Control is asserted through physical punishments that involved bodily harm which would be conducted publicly to send a message to other citizens
Disciplinary power:
used in society today. Discipline is exerted through monitoring, managing and controlling behaviour. Aims to govern the body and the mind e.g. CJS rehabilitates offenders through punishment of the mind, use of surveillance.
Surveillance Society:
Disciplinary power has extended everywhere in society
- not just in prisons.
Surveillance has become a tool of social control
and is used to
monitor our behaviour
. Everyone is constantly subjected to it thanks to massive technological advances.
As a result, most people obey the rules and
regulate their own behaviour
, since they know they are being watched and are scared of being caught and labelled negatively.
Crime is reduced due to this self-surveillance and self-discipline
.
Panopticon
: Foucault illustrates this through his theory of ‘panopticon’ where inmates in a prison are led to believe they are constantly under the threat of surveillance in order to promote self-regulation of their own behaviour.
Evaluation
Over exaggerates the power of surveillance. We are not in a constant state of being watched, and it is not always effective e.g. displacement
Assumes that people care enough about being watched but surveillance does not deter everyone.
Gill and Loveday (2003)
: few robbers and burglars were put off by CCTV.
Koskela
: criticises surveillance as an extension of the male gaze- women are visible to male camera operators when they may not be aware.
Situational Crime Prevention (Right Realists)
Designing Out
After methods of SCP were used (e.g. smaller cubicles and sinks) crime was reduced as it became more difficult to commit
Uses the example of a bus terminal in NY which had a poorly designed bathroom that provided opportunities for deviant and criminal behaviour. E.g. the cubicles were large which encouraged drug dealing, the sinks were very long which encouraged homeless people to sleep in the restrooms overnight.
Felson (1998)
: Describes how situational crime prevention can ‘design crime out’ of a particular area.
Poyner and Webb (1997):
carried out a field experiment and discovered there was a high rate of theft at the Bullring Centre in Birmingham, with most theft occurring in 2 densely packed markets. After redesigning the markets crime reduced by 70%
Evaluation:
Ignores m/c crimes and white collar crimes, focusing only on "street crime" which tends to be w/c
Assumes that RCT is the cause of crime and that criminals act rationally- what about crimes of passion that are impulsive or violent crime?
Displacement
: SCP and ECP don't stop crime from happening, it just moves it from one area to another.
Chaiken et al (1974):
a crackdown on subway robberies only led to more crime above the surface
Norris (2012)
: CCTV in carparks reduced crime in carparks but had no effect elsewhere
Ignores the root causes of crime, such as poverty, poor socialisation, marginalisation etc
Lyng
: the seduction of crime comes from the buzz/ thrill of taking risks- SCP simply provides extra challenge= extra levels of thrill
Target Hardening
Aim to achieve Target Hardening: making people, buildings, objects a less attractive and easy target e.g. window locks, car security features, anti-climb paint etc
Increased Surveillance: more CCTV, home surveillance, open shopping centres etc so that people are deterred from crime
Directed at specific crimes such as robbery, petty theft, violence, homeless crime
SCP focuses on
Rational Choice Theory
- criminals weigh up costs and benefits of committing crime and
target victims/ places where risk is minimal with high rewards
. Thus, we need to
reduce the rewards/ opportunities to commit crime, and increase the risks
so that the
cons outweigh the pros.
Environmental Crime Prevention
Wilson and Kelling's Broken Windows Theory
forms the basis of ECP. It calls for cracking down on basic standards such as the appearance of an area. If an area has broken windows, vandalism, graffiti, rubbish etc this needs to be fixed immediately in order to maintain the expected standards
By leaving the windows broken, it sends out a message that no one cares about the community- the area will gradually deteriorate and crime will increase.
NYC Clean Car Programme
This was an initiative to
renovate the carriages on subway trains
by removing graffiti and painting them so that the
incentive to vandalise was reduced
and people feel safer in the subway
1990-2009: homicide rate declined by 82% in NY and 56% across other cities
Eval: was this truly due to ECP or was it population changes, increased imprisonment etc
Two Key Methods
Environmental Improvement:
immediate repair of anything damaged in the environment without delay
Social Control and Zero-Tolerance Policing
: police must have zero tolerance towards criminal acts and react to even the slightest hint of disorder with harsher punishments. Social control must be increased through curfews, no-alcohol zones, security guards, ASBOs
Social Crime Prevention
Left realists argue that the most effective way of reducing crime is to tackle the root, social causes of crime:
Relative deprivation
(poverty)
Marginalisation
(social exclusion, discrimination)
Formation of Subcultures
The Perry Preschool Project
Schweinhart
: conducted a longitudinal study on the Perry Preschool Project, a community programme that aimed to reduce criminality. It showed how early intervention can lead to a reduction in crime later in life.
The project targeted a small sample of 3-4 year-old disadvantaged black children who participated in an intellectual enrichment programme. They were compared to a control group who were not part of the programme. 40 years later, they were more successful in life: were more likely to graduate from high school, be in stable employment, and not be in prison.
For every dollar spent on the programme, $17 was saved on welfare, prison etc = saves money for the state in the long term.
Strategies
Policies to reduce material and cultural deprivation:
e.g. Sure Start, Pupil Premium, programmes to reduce social exclusion, to improve employment opportunities, increase cultural capital, increase social mobility etc
Increasing Social Cohesion in neighbourhoods
: building a tight-knit community and allowing members to work together to reduce crime e.g. Neighbourhood Watch
Building Positive Relationships between public and police
: e.g. more public involvement in choosing senior police officers, having public meetings to discuss community issues
Multi-Agency Approach
: police liaise with other agencies e.g. social workers, schools, MPs to form a better understanding of issues facing criminals
Evaluation:
focuses on blue collar crime only
Right Realists argue it is too soft on criminals
Not everyone who is relatively deprived commits crime
Too optimistic- it's difficult for communities to just "come together" and it takes time to build a relationship with the police.