Control, Punishment And Prevention Of Crime Flashcards
What are the 3 ways of preventing and controlling crime?
1). Situational crime prevention =
specific crimes in specific areas.
2). Environmental crime prevention =
zero tolerance.
3). Social and community crime prevention =
dealing with social structure.
What is situational crime prevention (SCP)?
Managing and altering specific crimes in specific areas =
- increase risk of being caught.
- reduce rewards (rational choice).
What are some example of SCP?
1) . Blue lights in club toilets = prevents injecting drugs (can’t see veins).
2) . Spikes in doorways = prevent vagrancy.
3) . CCTV = increases burglar’s effort, decreasing crime.
Evaluate SCP?
1). Explains opportunistic petty street crimes =
but not white collar/corporate crimes.
2) . Violent/drug related crimes are difficult to define as rational choice.
3) . Displacement =
people may commit the crime in a different area.
What is environmental crime prevention?
- ‘broken window’ theory = fixing any disorder before it escalates (immediately).
- absence of informal/formal social control means members of the community feel powerless and intimidated.
What is an example of environmental crime prevention?
Zero tolerance policy =
used in New York and resolved the public’s trust and powerless issues.
Evaluate environmental crime prevention?
1). Zero tolerance fall in New York =
more due to increasing police numbers and increasing employment, rather than a crack down on crime.
What is social and community crime prevention?
Instead of policing crime, this deals with social structures that prevents future crime.
- long-term crime prevention = rather than tackling immediate/short-term crime, it focuses on the root causes of crime.
What is an example of social and community crime prevention?
Increasing employment policies =
- as this is a cause of crime, increasing employment reduces crime rates.
Which approach does each crime prevention measure relate to?
1) . Situational crime prevention = right realism.
2) . Environmental crime prevention = right realism.
3) . Social and community crime prevention = left realism.
What is surveillance?
Monitoring behaviour for the purpose of control =
- observing people to gather data about them.
- using this data to regulate their behaviour.
What theory did Foucault develop?
Panopticon (1977) =
- In his book “Discipline and punish” he contrasts 2 different forms of punishment.
What were the 2 forms of punishment Foucault discussed?
1) . Sovereign power (before 19th Century) =
- the monarch exercised physical power through visible spectacles (e.g. public execution).
2) . Disciplinary power (after 19th Century) =
- seeks to govern not just the body, but also the mind through surveillance (e.g. self-discipline).
What type of power is the Panopticon?
Disciplinary.
What is the Panoticon?
A design of prison =
- prisoners are visible to guards, but the guards aren’t visible to the prisoners.
What types of surveillance does the Panoticon enforce?
Prisoners behave as if they are constantly being watched =
- self-surveillance + discipline = self-discipline.
What is carceral archiapelgo?
Series of prison islands =
- surveillance is exercised in other institutions, not just prisons (schools, factories, etc).
- disciplinary power is now everywhere in society.
How is Foucault criticised?
1) . He argues the expressive emotional aspects of crime have disappeared =
- some are still expressed emotionally (peado = harsh prison sentence).
2) . He exaggerates the extent of control.
3) . He overestimates the power of surveillance to change behaviour.
What is the issue of CCTV as a form of the Panoticon?
CCTV only reduced crime in car parks =
- may cause displacement.
- CCTV assumes people self-discipline.
- however, Gill and Loveday found that burglars and shoplifters were put off by CCTV.
Who developed the Synopticon?
Mathiesen (1997).
What is the Synopticon?
In late modernity =
- there is an increase in surveillance from the ‘top-down’, and ‘bottom-up’.
- everyone watches everyone.
Whats the difference between the Panoticon and Synopticon?
Panopticon =
allows the few to monitor the many.
Synopticon =
allows everyone to monitor everyone.
What is an example of the Synopticon?
1) . Thompson =
- argues powerful groups (politicians and police) fear media scrutiny (filming police wrongdoing).
2) . Dash cams, go-pros =
- these warn other road users that they’re being monitored = self-discipline.
What is sousveillance?
Surveillance from below =
a form of citizen journalism –? ordinary people can control those above them through surveillance.
What is an example of sousveillance?
Ordinary people recording the actions of police brutality on black people.
Criticise the synopticon?
MacCahill (2012) =
it doesn’t reverse the established ‘hierarchy of surveillance’.
- e.g. the police have the power to confiscate cameras of citizen journalists.
How is crime controlled?
Surveillance.
What surveillance theories are there?
1) . Panopticon - Foucault (1977).
2) . Synopticon - Mathiesen (1977).
3) . Surveillance assemblages - Haggerty and Ericson (2000).
4) . Actuarial justice and risk management - Feeley and Simon (1994).
- Social sifting and categorical suspicion - Lyon (2014).
Who developed surveillance assemblages?
Haggerty and Ericson (2000).
What are surveillance assemblages?
Surveillance technologies are combined together which involves manipulation of digital data, instead of physical bodies (Panopticon).
What is an example of a surveillance assemblage?
CCTV footage can be analysed using facial recognition software.
How do surveillance assemblages prevent crime?
Self-discipline =
- CCTV can recognise reg plates, car tax, etc; so people make sure they have car tax as they know police can catch them digitally.
What is actuarial justice?
Technology uses statistical calculations of risk to predict the likelihood of people offending.
What are statistical calculations of risk?
Offender ‘risk factors’ (e.g. ethnicity, age, sex, religion , etc) are used to give a person a risk score.
- anyone scoring above a given level can be stopped, questioned, etc.
How is actuarial justice different from disciplinary power?
- It focuses on groups rather than individuals.
- Not interested in rehabilitation, but simply in preventing them from offending.
What is an example of actuarial justice?
Airport, security screening checks =
based on offender ‘risk factors’.
- anyone, usually Muslim, who scores a certain level can be stopped, etc.
What theory is actuarial justice similar to?
Typification =
instead, actuarial justice says technology stereotypes a typical delinquent.
- e.g. if more black people are prosecuted for crack-cocaine they are typified digitally.
What does Lyon say the purpose of actuarial justice is?
‘Social sifting’ =
categorise people so they are treated differently according to the level of risk they pose.
- can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies –> if black people are at a high risk, they will be caught more, sentenced and end up in crime statistics.
What did Norris and Armstrong find about labelling and surveillance?
CCTV operators target young black males based on racist stereotypes.
- creating a self-fulfilling prophecy; they are criminalised and prosecuted more while other groups are ignored.
How is punishment justified?
1). Deterrence =
punishing the individual to prevent future offending from fear of more punishment.
2). Rehabilitation =
reforming offenders so they no longer offend.
3). Incapicitation =
removing the offenders ability to offend.
4). Retribution =
‘pay back’ –> the idea that society is entitled to take revenge for the offender.
What is an example of each form of punishment?
1). Deterrence =
1980s Thatcher government’s ‘short sharp shock’ regime for young offenders.
2). Rehabilitation =
anger management courses to reform violent offenders.
3). Incapacitation =
America’s ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy to give lengthy sentences.
4). Retribution =
a prison sentence or death penalty.
What are the sociological perspectives on punishment?
- Functionalism = Durkheim.
- Marxism = capitalism and punishment.
What is the functionalist perspective on punishment?
Durkheim argues that =
the function of punishment is to uphold social solidarity and reinforce shared values by expressing society’s moral outrage at the offence.
What types of justice did Durkheim identify?
1). Retributive justice =
traditional society has a strong collective conscience, so when deviated, punishment is sever and vengeful.
2) . Restitutive justice =
- in modern society, there is extensive interdependence (people rely on each other for their role in the division of labour).
- crime damages this interdependence, justice is to repair the damage (e.g. compensation).
How is Durkheim’s view on punishment criticised?
Too simplistic =
- traditional societies often have restitutive rather than retributive.
- e.g. accepting payment/compensation rather than wanting to execute.
What is an example of traditional societies being restitutive rather than retributive?
“Blood feud” =
if one member of a clan is killed, they may accept payment instead of a life.
What is the Marxist perspective on punishment?
Punishment if part of the RSA =
- that defends ruling-class property against w/c.
- the form of punishment reflects the economic base of society.
- under capitalism, imprisonment is dominant because “time is money” and offenders pay by doing time.
What are the trends in punishment?
1) . The changing role in prisons.
2) . Transcarceration.
3) . Alternatives to prison.
What was the purpose of prisons in pre-industrial societies?
Holding offenders prior to trial =
- their form of punishments were banishment, fines, executions, etc.
- only later is imprisonment seen as a form of punishment.
What is the purpose of prisons in liberal democracies?
Imprisonment is seen as the most severe form of punishment =
- but as most prisoners re-offend, prison may be making bad people worse.
What is populist punitiveness?
Since the 1980s =
- politicians call for tougher sentences to appeal to the public (Garland).
- even though this greater control is ineffective in reducing crime.
Which country in Western Europe imprisons the highest proportion of people?
The UK.
What does Garland say about the changing role of prisons?
USA and UK are moving into an era of mass incarceration =
- in the US, over 3% of adults have a judicial restriction on their liberty.
What is trancarceration?
Trend towards moving people between different prison-like institutions =
- e.g. brought up in care, then a young offenders institute, then adult prison, etc.
How is transcarceration a product of blurring the boundaries between CJ and welfare agencies?
e. g. social services, health and housing are =
- increasing being given a crime control role.
- this shows that the underclass possess a threat to social stability (New Right).
What alternatives to prisons are there?
There has been a growth in the range of community-based controls =
- e.g. curfews, community service orders, tagging, etc.
What does Stanley Cohen say the consequences of the alternatives to prison is?
Growth in community control has simply ‘casted a net of control’ over more people =
- instead of diverting people from the CJS, community control diverts them into it.
- e.g. ASBO’s are a fast way of getting young offenders into custodial sentences.
