Crime prevention Flashcards
What is the justice gap?
- the difference between estimated offences and those few offences that do come to the attention of the CJS and actually prosecuted
What is the preventive turn?
- the shift towards emphasising strategies and measures to prevent crime rather than just dealing with the effects of it
What is the impact of short prison sentences compared to community orders?
- short prison sentences have been shown to be less effective at reducing reoffending that community orders for the same crime
What is the difference in percentage of reoffending rates for prison sentences vs community orders (2021)
- prison sentences of less than 12 months: 63%
- community order: 56%
What distinguishes community safety from both crime prevention and crime and disorder reduction?
- narrow and expansive signifiers
What is the definition of crime prevention?
- any action taken or technique employed by private individuals and groups or public agencies aimed at prevention and reduction of damage caused by acts defined by the state
What is the definition of community safety?
- a local, multi-agency partnership approach to the reduction of crime and disorder alongside the associated fears among local people via community engagement
What is the definition of crime reduction?
- any measure or variety of measures aimed at reducing crime: technical and numerical measurement of a ‘scientific’ evaluation of effectiveness
What are the major types of crime prevention?
- population target conception
- process conception
- audience conception
- dispositional conception
Types of population target conception
- primary (whole population)
- secondary (‘at risk’ groups)
- tertiary (offenders and victims known to the authorities)
Types of process conception
- situational
- social
Types of audience conception
- victim-oriented
- community-oriented
- offender-oriented
Types of dispositional conception
- criminal justice
- restorative justice
- social justice
- risk management
Examples of an audience/target typology of crime prevention
victim-oriented:
- primary: target hardening
- secondary: prevention measures for at risk groups
- tertiary: victim support
community/neighbourhood-oriented:
- primary: increased surveillance
- secondary: targeting at risk groups/places and sources of conflict
- tertiary: targeting ‘hot spots’
offender-oriented:
- primary: citizenship programmes, education, target hardening
- secondary: working with those at risk of offending
- tertiary: rehabilitation, diversion programmes
Examples of a process/target typology of crime prevention
social:
- primary: education, socialisation, neighbourhood watch
- secondary: working with those ‘at risk’ of offending
- tertiary: rehabilitation
situational:
- primary: target-hardening, surveillance
- secondary: target-hardening and design measures for ‘at risk’ groups, risk assessment
- tertiary: individual deterrence, incapacitation, assessment of danger and risk
Dispositional typology of prevention
Dispositions:
- criminal justice
- restorative justice
- social justice
- managing the risks of opportunities for crime and disorder
- managing the risk of criminal careers
How does criminal justice prevent crime?
- by enforcing the criminal law and supporting the prosecution and sanctioning of offences against this law
- prevention is a reaction to offences already committed
How does restorative justice prevent crime?
- prevention is accomplished through the negotiation of reparations between offenders and victims and through a deliberate attempt to avoid the CJ process
How does social justice prevent crime?
- prevention is accomplished through the use of social and economic policies to address problems of the social and political exclusion of citizens that are believed to cause social conflicts
How does managing the risks of opportunities for crime and disorder prevent crime?
- prevention is accomplished by reducing the situational opportunities for crime and by increasing the risk and effort of offending behaviour whilst reducing its rewards
How does managing the risk of criminal careers prevent crime?
- prevention is accomplished through early interventions with groups ‘at risk’ of embarking on offending careers and through desistance programmes for prolific and priority offenders
What types of regimes are responses to crime?
- maintenance regimes
- developmental regimes
- reformist regimes
- transformative regimes
- failed regimes
Maintenance regimes
- Maintenance of criminal justice as the principal policy response to
crime not with standing severe criticism of the ineffectiveness of punitive, offender-oriented, agendas
Developmental regimes
- Criminal justice policy remains the principal response to crime but is augmented by forms of risk management
