Component 3: Crime - Prevention Flashcards
What is defensible space?
Refers to having a protective attitude towards the shared area outside of an apartment for example. This can lead to the upkeep of an area .
What are the six key drivers of crime that need to be targeted in order to prevent crime.
Opportunity: removing opportunity for criminals to offend.
Character: intervening early with those exposed to factors that might lead to a high likelihood of committing crime.
Effectiveness of Criminal Justice System: ensuring it acts as a powerful deterrent.
Profit: making it harder for criminals to benefit financially from their crimes
Drugs: a new drug strategy to restrict the supply of drugs and tackle the organised crime behind the drugs trade
Alcohol: making it safer for people to consume alcohol without fear of becoming a victim of alcohol-related crime or disorder.
What is Newman’s theory?
He argued that when residential areas have little or no defensible space. residents will be less satisfied with their neighbourhood and there will be more crime and fear of crime.
What are the four features that Newman says creates defensible space?
- Territoriality - creating zones where residents have a sense of ownership e.g. creating boundaries using fences and changes in paving.
- Natural surveillance - residents are able to see what’s happening in their neighbourhood e.g. providing unobstructed views of communal areas
- Image - this refers to physical attributes of housing development that make them defensible e.g. regular maintenance and improving the appearance of buildings
- Milieu (surroundings) - making the most of a developments location close to heavily used communal areas e.g. entryways visible from the road
What evidence did Newman get for defensible space influencing crime?
Newman carried out research in two New York housing projects called Van Dyke (high rise) and Brownsville (built around courtyards) which had a similar density of residents. The results showed Van Dyke had higher levels of crime and graffiti. Newman concluded this was because Brownsville had better opportunity for surveillance and the communal areas meant children could play outside so residents would develop a sense of community. This meant strangers would be more easily identified.
What is Zimbardo’s broken windows theory?
He conducted an experiment where he abandoned two similar cars in different neighbourhood - one in Bronx (poor suburb) and one in Palo Alto, California (affluential area)He removed the number plates and left the bonnets open. In Bronx, within 10 minutes, people began stealing parts and after 3 days everything valuable had been stripped and the car became a source of entertainment with people smashing the windows and chipping the paint. In Palo Alto, it remained untouched for over a week. Zimbardo smashed part of the car with a sledgehammer to see what would happen. Within a few hours, the car was completely destroyed.
What did Wilson and Kelling say about Zimbardo’s experiment?
They developed the ‘broken windows’ theory of crime in which if a broken window remains unrepaired, vandals will soon break a building’s remaining windows. They explain that this is because the broken window sends a signal that no one is in charge and there are no consequences to breaking more windows. The broken window is a metaphor for ways the behavioural norms break down in a community.
What is the zero tolerance policy for crime?
Bill Bratton (chief of NYPD during the 1990s)developed this strategy for policing to prevent the development of antisocial norms. It involves relentless order maintenance and aggressive law enforcement against even minor crimes and not prioritising serious crime.
What research evidence is there for the zero tolerance policy?
George Kelling and William Sousa Jr reported that zero tolerance policy had a substantial positive impact on crime. In the decade 1998-1998 the number of misdemeanour arrests in the average NYPD district appeared to have a significant impact on violent crime in the area. For every 28 misdemeanour arrests there was 1 less serious crime.
What challenges are there to the zero tolerance policy?
Harcourt and Ludwig suggest this reduction is simply means aversion. By this they mean that New York experienced the largest increases in violent crime during the 1980s largely due to crack cocaine use. As use of crack cocaine decreased in the 1990s, so did violent crime. Therefore, reductions were not just due to police strategies.
What is the background to the Wilson and Kelling study?
In the mid-1970s the ‘Safe and Clean Neighbourhoods Program’ was designed to improve the quality of community life in Newark and 27 other cities in New Jersey. It involved taking policer officers out of their cars and assigning them to walking beats. After 5 years, an evaluation was done that showed foot patrol had not reduced crime rates but residents felt more secure and believed crime had been reduced. Officers also had greater job satisfaction.
What was the aim of Wilson and Kelling’s research?
To outline how features of a neighbourhood can influence crime rates, the changing role of police in the US and strategies for mainitaining order.
Wilson and Kelling on safe neighbourhoods:
They asked ‘How can a neighbourhood be considered safer when the crime rate has not gone down, but in fact, may have gone up? They suggest the answer lies in understanding what frightens people. It might be that foot patrol officers elevated the level of public order.
What did Wilson and Kelling say about foot patrol officers?
Kelling says the role of the officer could be described as enforcing the law and taking informal steps to protect the neighbourhood rules for public order. The people in these run-down areas were made up of ‘regulars’ and’strangers’. The officer knew who the regulars were and they knew him. He saw his job as keeping an eye on strangers and direputable regulars. The people of Newark felt reassured when the plice helped them maintain that order.
What did Wilson and Kelling say about the broken windows theory?
If a window is left broken, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. Neglected property becomes a target for disorder even for people who ordinarily would not dream of doing such things. When people do not care for their property, there is a breakdown of community controls.
