8. Control, Punishment And Victims

Question 1

Crime prevention and control

Question 2

Situational crime prevention

Answer 2

-Ron Clarke describes situational crime prevention as a approach that relies, not on improving society, but simply reducing opportunities for crime
-Identifies three measures aimed at situational crime prevention: directed at specific crimes, managing or altering immediate environment of the crime, aim at increasing effort and risk of committing crime and reducing rewards
-Target hardening measures such as locking doors and Windows increasing effort for crimes and increased surveillance in shops to increase risk
-Believe crime is a rational choice by weighing up costs and rewards

Question 3

Port authority Bus terminal New York (situational crime prevention)

Answer 3

-Aimed to ‘design out’ crime
-Bus terminal was poorly designed and provided opportunities to commit crime
-Toilets were a setting for rough sleeping and drug dealing etc
-To reduce opportunities for crime large sinks were replaced with small basins so homeless ppl couldn’t bathe in them

Question 4

Evaluation of situational crime prevention

Answer 4

-Some sociologists say one criticism is that it doesn’t reduce crime it just displaces it, displacement takes several forms: spatial, temporal, target, tactical, functional
-Only focuses on opportunistic street crime, ignores corporate, white collar crimes which are often more costly
-Assumes criminals make rational decisions, many crimes committed in a intoxicated state

Question 5

Environmental crime prevention

Answer 5

-Based on James Q. Wilson and George Kellings ‘broken window’ article
-Broken window stands for signs of disorder and lack of concern for others in a neighbourhood, graffiti, noise
-Argue leaving this unrepaired sends out a signal no one cares
-In these neighbourhoods absence of formal social control as they turn blind eye to petty crimes
-Respectable ppl move out and becomes a magnet for deviants

Question 6

Zero tolerance policing

Answer 6

-Wilson and Kellings key idea is that disorder and the absence of controls leads to crime
-Broken windows must therefore be repaired immediately
-Secondly, police must adopt zero tolerance strategy. Instead of merely reacting to crime, they must proactively tackle even the slightest sign of disorder. This will halt neighbourhood decline and prevent serious crime taking root

Question 7

Evaluation of environmental crime prevention

Answer 7

-One strength is that it has been proved to work, crime rates dropped significantly in New York once it was introduced
-A negative is it resulted in a lot more people being arrested for possession of marijuana – 25 000 a year by 2012. Once labelled as criminal ppl may self fulfill the label and commit worst crimes, especially if job is lost
-Focuses on minor crimes, and street crimes, ignoring the more serious crimes committed by elites, which Marxists see as more harmful. It also does little to address the underlying causes of crime.

Question 8

Social and community crime prevention