Control, Punishment and The Victims Flashcards
Explain the difference between target hardening and displacement.
Target‐hardening refers to security measures such as locks, alarms etc., designed to make crime
more difficult. Displacement refers to the way in which target hardening may result in crime
being deflected onto different targets/victims.
Suggest two criticisms of situational crime prevention strategies apart from displacement.
They ignore white‐collar and corporate crime. Many criminals act under the influence of drugs or
alcohol, so do not make rational decisions. They ignore underlying causes of crime such as
poverty or poor socialisation.
What is meant by ‘Zero Tolerance Policing’?
The police must be proactive in dealing with the smallest signs of disorder, so that more serious
crime will not develop.
Give one example of synoptic surveillance.
The media’s surveillance of politicians may uncover damaging information about them. The
public monitor each other, as with video cameras mounted on cycle helmets or dashboards to
collect evidence in the event of accidents. Widespread camera ownership means that ordinary
citizens may be able to ‘control the controllers’, for example filming police wrong doing.
Explain what is meant by ‘Surveillant Assemblages’.
Where different technologies that can ‘talk’ to one another can be combined e.g. CCTV and
facial recognition software.
Explain what is meant by ‘Actuarial Justice’.
A new technology of power that focuses on groups not individuals and prevention not
rehabilitation. It is based on calculating and predicting the likelihood that different sections of
the population will commit crimes.
Explain the difference between retributive and restitutive justice.
Retributive justice involves revenge by society and harsh punishment; restitutive justice
attempts to restore things to the way they were before the crime, e.g. through paying
compensation.
According to Marxists, why has imprisonment become the dominant form of punishment?
Because imprisonment reflects the capitalist mode of production, e.g. paying for one’s crime by
‘doing time’ in a society where ‘time is money’; prison reflects the strict discipline of capitalist
factory production.
Explain what Foucault means by ‘Disciplinary Power’?
Control via surveillance which is internalised by the individual and becomes self‐surveillance.
What is meant by ‘Transcarceration’?
The way in which a person may move from one institution to another during their lifetime, such
as children’s care home, prison and mental institution.
Suggest two criticisms of positivist victimology.
It ignores structural factors such as patriarchy; it often seems to blame the victim; it does not
account for situations where the victims are not aware of the crimes committed against them; it
ignores harms done to victims which are not against the law.
