Crime, prevention and control Flashcards
Situational Crime Prevention
Clarke describes situational crime prevention as?
A ‘pre-emptive approach that relies, not on improving society or its institutions, but simply on reducing opportunities for crime’
Situational Crime Prevention
He identifies three features of measures aimed at situational crime prevention
- They are directed at specific crimes
- They involve managing or altering the immediate environment of the crime
- They aim at increasing the effort and risks of committing
Situational Crime Prevention
Give an example
Target hardening measures such as locking doors increase the effort of a burglar needs to make
Situational Crime Prevention
Underlying situational crime prevention approaches is an?
‘Opportunity’ or rational choice theory of crime. This is the view that criminals act rationally, weighing up the costs and benefits of a crime opportunity before deciding whether to commit it
Contrasts with theories of crime that stress ‘root causes’ such as the criminal’s early socialisation. Clarke argues that most theories offer no realistic solutions to crime. The most obvious thing to do is to focus on the immediate crime situation, since this is where scope forprevention is greatest
Situational Crime Prevention
One criticism of situational crime prevention measures is?
Displacement
They do not reduce crime; they displace it. After all, if criminals are acting rationally, they will respond to target hardening simply by moving to where targets are softer
Situational Crime Prevention
Displacement can take several forms?
Displacement
- Spatial- moving elsewhere to commit the crime
- Temporal- committing it at a different time
- Target- choosing a different victim
- Tactical- using a different method
- Functional- committing a different type of crime
Situational Crime Prevention
Evaluation
- Situational crime prevention works to some extent in reducing certain kinds of crime. However, with most measures there is likely to be some displacement.
- It ignores white-collar, corporate and state crime, which are more costly and harmful
- It assumes criminals make rational calculations. This seems unlikely in many crimes of violence and crimes committed under the influence of drugs
Enviromental crime prevention
Wilson and Kelling use the phrase ‘broken windows’ to stand for?
- All the various signs of disorder and lack of concern for others that are found in some neighbourhoods
- e.g. graffiti. They argue that leave broken windows unrepaired, tolerating graffiti etc., sends out a signal that no one cares
Enviromental crime prevention
In such neighbourhoods, there is an absence of?
- Both formal social control (the police) and informal control (the community)
- The police are only concerned with serious crime and turn a blind eye to petty nuisance behaviour, while respected members feel intimidated and powerless
Enviromental crime prevention
Wilson and Kelling’s solution to crack down on any disorder is by?
Zero tolerance policing
- A twofold strategy
- First, an environmental improvement strategy: any broken window must be repaired immediately, abandoning cars towed without delay etc
- Secondly, the police must adopt a zero tolerance policing strategy. Instead of merely reacting to crime, they must proactively tackle even the slightest sign of disorder, even if it’s not criminal. This will halt neighbourhood decline and prevent serious crime taking root
Enviromental crime prevention
Clean car program in New York
The evidence
- A ‘Clean Car Program’ in New York has been a success for zero tolerance policing
- Cars were taken out of service immediately if they had any graffiti on them, only returning once clean
- As a result, graffiti was largely removed from the subway.
- Other success programs include drug dealing and fare dodging
Environmental crime prevention
However, it is not clear how far zero tolerance was the cause of the improvements because?
The evidence
- The NYPD benefited from 7,000 extra officers
- There was a general decline in the crime rate in major US cities at the time- including ones where police did not adopt a zero tolerance policy
- There was a decline in the availability of crack cocaine
Social and community crime prevention
Social and community prevention strategies place the emphasis firmly on?
- The potential offender and their social context
- The aim of these strategies is to remove the conditions that predispose individuals to crime in the first place
- These are longer-term strategies, since they attempt to tackle the root causes of offending
Social and community crime prevention
The causes of crime are often rooted in?
social conditions such as poverty, more general social reform programmes addressing these issues may have a crime prevention role, even if this is not their main focus
What is missing?
What is missing?
- These approaches focus on fairly low-level and/or interpersonal crimes of violence. This disregards the crimes of the powerful and environmental crimes
- Whyte points out that there is no logical reason why such activities should not be included in the crime and disorder partnership agendas- yet despite their potential and actual effect on the health of local communities, they are not.
