Paper 3 - criminal 5 - crime prevention Flashcards
1
Q
Explain the background study by Zimbardo on broken windows theory
A
- Zimbardo conducted an experiment where he abandoned 2 similar cars in different neighbourhoods, one in the bronks, a poor suburb and another in palo alto, california.
- In the bronks, after 10 minutes of abandonment, people behan stealing parts from the car. After 3 days all valuable parts had been taken and it became a source of entertainmment. people smashed the windows and chipped the paint.
- In palo alto, nothing happened for more than a week. Zimbardo decided to smash parts of the car. Passerbys then soon took turns with thr hammer and the car was demolished within a few hours
- if a broken window remains unrepaired, vandals will soon break remaining windows as there is no consequence.
2
Q
describe the background study by Kelling and Sousa on zero tolerance
A
- They reported that the broken windows and zero tolerance policy had a substantial positive impact on the crime and violence in all areas of new york city.
- in the decade 1989-1998 the number of misdemeanour arrests had a significant effect on violent crime, for every 28 misdemeanour arrests there was one less violet crime. broken windows policy prevented over 60,000 violent crimes of 5% reduction
- Prevents development of antisocial norms by maintainance of law enforcement against all crimes
3
Q
what are features of a neighbourhood - newman’s theory
A
- territoriality - creating zones where residents have a sense of ownership like fences and changes in paving
- natural surveillance - residents are able to see what is happening in their neighbourhood such as outdoor balconies and road lighting
- image - physical attributes to houses that make them defendable like regular maintainance of buildings
- milieu (surroundings) - making the most of a development’s location close to communal areas like entry ways.
4
Q
what type of study is wilson and kelling’s research
A
an article
5
Q
what was the aim of wilson and kelling’s research
A
aims to outline how features of a neighbourhood can influence crime rates, the changing role of police in the US, and strategies for maintaining order.
6
Q
what is included in the ‘safe neighbourhoods’ section of wilson and kelling’s article
A
- They suggested that people have a fear of being bothered by disorderly people, like beggars, drunks and adicts.
- **Footpatrol officers - ** Kelling described his experience of walking with Newmark footpatrol officers through run down areas. It showed him the role of the officer should be described as enforcing the law and taking informal steps to protect the neighbouthood rules for public order. The people in these run down areas were made of regulars and strangers. He saw his job as keeping an eye on strangers and making sure that they understood the rules. For example telling drunk people not to sit on building steps and telling noisy teenagers to be quiet.
- The people of Newmark appeared to be reassured when police helped them maintain order, it reduced fear of crime
- **Broken windows - ** Neglected property becomes a target for disorder even for people who wouldn’t usually create disorder. Many residents think that crime is in the rise and keep off the streets and wish to move away.
- **Community controls - ** Wilson and Kelling belived that these cases of disorderliness weaken interaction between people and community controls.
7
Q
what is included in the ‘changing role of police’ section in wilson and kelling’s article
A
- **new developments in policies - ** Society wanted police officers to have legal tools to remove undesirable people from a neighbourhood. Thid mean that society has to decide what constitutes as a undesirable person and what behaviours should be criminalised.
- **Ensuring police treat people fairly - ** The selection, training and supervision of police is important, however, this does not overcome the problem of police resources and numbers. Wilson and Kelling suggest 3 possible solutions - try variations of the newmark experiment, use informal social control methods and employ citizen patrols.
8
Q
what is included in the ‘maintaining order’ section of wilson and kelling’s article
A
- the police are the key to maintaining order. Wilson and kelling believed that the key objective is to identify neighbourhoods where public order is deteriorating and decide where officers will make the greatest difference in promoting a sense of safety.
- **suggestions **- wilson and kelling suggest private security guards to patrol buildings. Also patrol officers should be encouraged to use public transport and enforce rules on drinking and disorderly conduct. Police should protect communities and maintain order in communities without broken windows
9
Q
what are the conclusions of wilson and kellings article
A
- police may have been mistakenly encourages to think they will be judged on their capacity as crime fighters. the end result is that policing is focuse on high crime areas.
- We should return to the view that the police should protect communities as well as individuals. crime statistics measure individual losses but not communal losses.
- Doctors now recognise the importance of fostering health rather than treating illness - and similarly the police should focus on maitaining orderly communities with no broken windows.
10
Q
explain the validity of this topic
A
- Zimbardo - a field experiment so is high in ecological validity
- Wilson and Kelling - kelling’s observations were subjective with no other evidence or confirmation. This questions their validity
- kelling and sousa - the measure of disrict misdemeanour arrests are highly valid as the data is based on official NYPD records which are collected under struct guidelines.
11
Q
explain the reliability of this topic
A
- wilson and kelling - only based on kellings observations, low inter rater reliability
- kellings and sousa - reliable, the number of misdemeanour arrests are based on official NYPD records which are collected under strict guidelines
- Zimbardo - field experiment so low control of extraneous variables.
12
Q
explain the sampling bias of this topic
A
1.zimbardo - difficult to generalise the broken windoes theory of crime to all cities
2. Kelling and sousa - new york only
3. wilson and kelling only looked at cities in new jersey.
13
Q
explain ethnocenrism in tis topic
A
- zimbardo - american collectivist culture
- policing strategies for zero tolerance policy deal with problems in a western way
- kelling and sousa - american only, new jersey
14
Q
explain reductionism/holism in this topic
A
- kellings and sousa - reductionist, ignores other key explanations like economy and drug use.
- newman - reductionism - only physical design, doesnt look at social influences on residents
- zimbardo - reductionsim - reduces vandalism to antisoical norms, not an explanation for each person’s beaviour
15
Q
explain socially sensitive research in this topic
A
- zero tolerance - violated civil rights for minorities and poor people.
- Zimbardo - poor areas may be discriminated against as being seen as criminals, disregarded from opportunities.
- Wilson and kelling - relatively harmless behaviours being criminalised like loud teenagers
16
Q
explain usefulness of research in this topic
A
- newman - social benefits, crime preventoin through simple architectual design
- wilson and kelling - lacks validity, observations should be applied cautiously.
- zimbardo - shows how poor areas are more suseptible to crime - in palo alto no windows got smashed originally
17
Q
explain individual/situational debate in this topic
A
- wilson and kelling - situational, features of a neighbourhood influence crime rates
- zimbardo - situational, the situation of an abandoned car influenced crime
- Wilson and kelling - individual, residents in newmark exerted self restraint in committing crime which led to reduction in crime.
18
Q
explain ethics in this topic
A
- zimbardo - no informed consent
- wilson and kelling - not decived, observed natural behaviour
- zero tolerance - socially sensitive as violated civil rights in minorities/ poor areas.
19
Q
what are the 2 applications of this topic
A
neighbourhood watch schemes
target hardening
20
Q
what are neighbourhood watch schemes
A
- aim to reduce crime by directly involving the communities in activities that promote safety or assist with detection of crime.
- If a communitiy is interested in setting up a NHW they contact the NHWN to register the assosication and also contact local police. They then consider what they want to achieve.
- A coordinator gets appointed who acts as the key contact point for the scheme, they ensure a smooth flow of information between police and the community.
21
Q
what is the usefulness, effectiveness and practicalities of neighbourhood watch schemes
A
- usefulness - most useful when residents can see each others houses. prevents antisocial behvaiour, burgularies and fraud.
- effectiveness - acts as a deterant to offenders by increasing their awareness that local residents will be looking and reporting crime. stickers are used to prove NHW scheme is in effect.
- practicalities - free and based on motivation of members to create safety mechanisms. may be some costs involved and time such as meetings and newsletters.
22
Q
what is target hardening ?
A
- the process of increasing the security of a property to make it more difficult to commit the crime.
- The goal is to deter criminals from targeting the property or person bu increasing effort and risk of the crime.
- e.g. strong locks, motion lights, cctv, locked gates, uniformed security, alarm tagging.
23
Q
what is the usefulness, effectiveness and practicalities of target hardening
A
- usefulness - fails to explain crime, it can cause crime in other areas that aren’t protected. It acts as a deterrnt by increasing effort and cost
- effectiveness - found that burgularies are less likely to happen
- practicalities - large financial cost e.g. cctv is expensive.
24
Q
evaluate psychology as a science in this topic
A
- Zimbardo - a field experiment so is high in ecological validity
- wilson and kelling - only based on kellings observations, low inter rater reliability
- kelling and sousa - the measure of disrict misdemeanour arrests are highly valid as the data is based on official NYPD records which are collected under struct guidelines.
