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Topic 9- Crime prevention and control - Coggle Diagram
Topic 9- Crime prevention and control
Situational Crime Prevention
Clarke describes situational crime prevention as a pre-emptive approach that relies not on improving society but simply reducing opportunities for crime.
He identifies 3 features of measures aimed at situational crime prevention
1) They are directed at specific crimes
2) They involve managing or altering the immediate environment of the crime.
3) They aim at increasing the effort and risks of committing crime and reducing rewards
For example target hardening measures such as locking doors and windows increase the effort a burglar needs to make while increasing surveillance in shops via CCTV increase the likelihood of shoplifters being caught.
Felson: The port Authority Bus terminal in New York was poorly designed and provided opportunities for deviant conduct for example the toilets were a setting for luggage thefts. Re shaping the physical environment to design crime out greatly reduces such activity for example large sinks were placed by small hand basins.
Displacement
One criticism of situational crime prevention measures is that they don't reduce crime they simply more it. If criminals are acting rationally, presumably they will respond to target hardening simply by moving to where targets are softer. For example Chaiken et al found that a crackdown on subway robberies in new York merely displaced them to the streets above. Displacement can take several forms for example temporal- committing it at a different time and tactical- using a different method
Evaluations
Situational crime prevention works to some extent in reducing certain types of crime. However with most measures there is likely to be displacement
Assumes criminals make rational calculations. This seems unlikely in many crimes of violence and crimes committed under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Environmental Crime Prevention
Wilson and Kelling use the phrase broken window to stand for all the various signs of disorder and lack of concern for others that are found in some neighbourhoods. This includes begging and graffiti. They argue that leaving broken windows unrepaired, tolerating aggressive begging sends out signals that no one cares.
In such neighbourhoods, there is an absence of both formal social control and informal control. The police are only concerned with serious crimes and turn a blind eye to pretty nuisance behaviour while respectable members of the community feel powerless. Without action the situational deteriorates tipping the neighbourhood into a downwards spiral.
Zero Tolerance Policing
Wilson and Kelling's idea is that disorder and the absence of controls lead to crime. Their solution is to crack down on any disorder. They argue that the police must adopt a zero tolerance policing strategy. Instead of reacting to the crime, they must proactivity tackle even the slightest sign of disorder even if its not criminal. This will prevent serious crime from tacking root.
Evidence
Great successes have been claimed especially in new York. For example a clean car programme was started on a subway in which cars were taken out of service immediately if they had any graffiti on them and only returned when they were clean. As a result graffiti was largely removed from the subway. Other successful programmes to tackle drug dealing and begging followed
However, its not clear how far zero tolerance was the cause of improvement. For example while deaths from homicides fell sharply, attempted homicides remained high. It has been suggested that the fall in the murder rated owed more to improved medical emergency services than policing
Social and Community crime prevention
Social and community prevention strategies place the emphasis firmly on the potential offender and their social context. The aim is to remove the conditions that predispose individuals to crime in the first place. These are long term strategies since they attempt to tackle the root causes of offending rather than simply removing opportunities for crime
The perry pre-school project
An experimental group of 3-4 year olds were offered a 2 year intellectual enrichment during which time the children also received weakly home visits. This was for black disadvantaged children. The study showed a striking difference with a control group that didn't undergo the programme. By the age of 40 they had significantly fewer lifetime arrests for violent crime while more had graduated and were in employment.
The approach takes for granted the nature and definition of crime. They generally focus on fairly low level crimes and /or interpersonal crimes of violence.This disregards the crimes of the powerful