Crime Prevention Flashcards
What was the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project ?
- St.Louis, Missouri
- Bricks and mortar solution to Urban Decay
- Worse during 60’s
- Demolished in 1970’s
What is ‘Defensible Space’ ?
- Newman (1972)
- Space will be defended if it clearly belongs to someone
- Blocks of flats have spaces that don’t belong to anyone- stairwells, lifts and parking areas
- Residents don’t feel responsible for these areas
- High rise buildings- residents don’t know who lives there, can’t identify criminals, reduced sense of community- criminal activity less likely to be challenged
What was the Van Dyke and Brownsville study by Newman ?
- VD= high rise blocks
- Brownsville= Low rise with courtyards
What were residents like in the Brownsville housing ?
- Had visible entrance, gave them surveillance to challenge criminals
- More care for communal areas- wallpapering and tending gardens
- Let children play out- creating community
What were residents like in the Van Dyke housing ?
- Didnt let children play out
- If they did it was the children causing trouble
What happened when Newman played a tape recording of a fight in the VD and Brownsville housing ?
- VD- people locked their doors
- Brownsville- Researchers couldn’t get into the building without being challenged by residents
What did Newman propose about ‘defensible space’ ?
- People need control over and responsibility for communal areas.
- Semi-private areas should be incorporated inside and outside- social interaction between residents was inevitable.
- All space should appear to belong to an individual or group
- Interior space – like courtyards - should be visually accessible from the street.
- Projects should be small and large families limited.
What are the factors for defensible space ?
- Zone of territorial influence- markers (fences, hedges)
- Opportunities for surveillance- Layouts should mean intruders can be easily spotted
- Image- individuality, personalisation
- Milieu- reduce open spaces
What is Broken Window Theory ?
- See things broken, nobody cares
- We can further damage it, as its already been neglected
What inspired Wilson and Kelling’s study ?
- Situational explanations of crime- disorderly neighbourhood leads to serious crimes
- Based off broken windows theory
- Zimbardos work
What was the Aim of Wilson and Kelling’s study ?
-To challenge existing beliefs about the fear of crime and the role of the police.
What was the method of Wilson and Kelling’s study ?
- Article is a discussion piece
- Proposes a theory of neighbourhood safety and crime
- No particular sample.
- Make reference to the Newark Foot Patrol Experiment.
- Took part in Safe and Clean Neighbourhoods programme the 1970s designed to improve the quality of community life.
- Newark is a case study
- Kelling takes part in a naturalistic participant observation of police officers on foot patrol
Why were polices attitude to foot patrol negative in Wilson and Kelling’s study ?
- Hard work
- Reduced the chances of catching serious criminals
- Were paid and went along with it
What were the results of Wilson and Kelling’s study ?
- Residants felt crime reduced and were happier in the community
- Officers had higher morale and job satisfaction and improved relations with the community
- Got to know who was a stranger and a regular
- People began to police themselves. E.G. begging was forbidden
- Residents felt more comfortable reporting disorder because they felt something would be done.
What was concluded from Wilson and Kelling’s Study ?
- Changed focus of policing from keepers of order to crime fighting has reduced community relations.
- Tackling small crimes needs to be a priority otherwise crime will escalate because people will feel the police do not care.
- Raise caution over using personal judgement by officers
- Public order should be created and maintained collaboratively by police and the community.
What is situational crime prevention ?
- Minimises opportunities for criminals to commit crime or makes criminal acts look risky
- Defensible space and rational choice theory.
- Includes target hardening, creating defensible space and increasing the risk of detection.
What is target hardening ?
- Alters cost benefit of committing crime
- Makes target of crime harder and less attractive
- E.G. bike locks, tagging
- However, criminals can change targets and tactics
- Big criticism of situational crime prevention
How can you create defensible space ?
- Poyner and Webb (1987)
- Reduction in vandalism and theft following measures such as entry phones, fences and electronic access to buildings.
- If the risk of being observed or challenged is too high an offender may refrain from the activity.
How can you increase the risk of detection ?
- Neighbourhood watch scheme
- Property making measures
- Community works together to increase surveillance,reporting and deterrence of crime
- CCTV, street lighting, electronic tagging of items in shops
