crime prevention and control

Question 1

situational crime prevention

Answer 1

• strategies that focus on specific point at which potential victims and criminals come together, making it harder for criminals to commit crime
• examples (target hardening): shutters, window locks, anti climb paint, cctv etc
• based on rational choice theory and cohen and felsons ‘routine activity’ theory which states that crime is opportunistic, reducing opportunities to commit crime will reduce crime itself.

evaluation :

• leads to crime displacement

Question 2

environmental crime prevention

Answer 2

• includes formal and informal social control measures which try to clamp down on anti-social behaviour and prevent an area from deteriorating
• emphasises role of police

examples: zero tolerance policing, curfews, street drinking ban etc

• wilson and kellings broken window thesis, physical disorder

evaluation- from a interactionist perspective, giving more power to the police will just increase labelling and more criminal careers

Question 3

social and community crime prevention

Answer 3

• Focus on individual offenders and the social context which encourages them to commit crime.
• Farrington’s (1995) longitudinal research comparing offenders and non offenders found various ‘risk factors’ which correlated with crime – such as low education and parental conflict.
• example: perry pre school project in which high quality education was presented to 3 to 4 year olds living in poverty and found it deterred them from crime

evaluation- most costly of all crime prevention