Topic 4: Crime Control, Punishments & Victims Flashcards
Rational Choice Theory
The view that criminals act rationally, weighing up the costs and benefits of a crime opportunity before committing it
Situational Crime Prevention
Reducing opportunities for crime through changes to the immediate environment and or increasing punishments
Target Hardening Measures
Measures taken to reduce opportunities for committing crimes
Displacement
- The crime is not eradicated but moved elsewhere or transformed.
- Displacement can take several forms: Spatial, temporal, target, tactical or functional
- Displacement is a criticism of situational crime prevention strategies
Environmental Crime Prevention
Measures taken to prevent the deterioration of a neighbourhood by immediately tackling signs of neglect such as vandalism, broken windows etc.
Zero Tolerance
The view that the police must proactively tackle any minor signs of disorder or deviance
Social & Community Prevention Strategies
These focus on the root cause of offending such as poverty, marginalisation and poor housing (Left Realist)
Surevillance
The monitoring of public behaviour for the purposes of population or crime control
Sovereign Power (Foucalt)
The type of power used in punishment pre 19th century which involved the control of the population through brutal physical punishments
Disciplinary Power (Foucalt)
The type of disciplinary power used from the 19th century onwards which involved control of population through surveillance
Panopticon (Foucalt)
The design of the 19th century prison that used surveillance measures to enforce self-surveillance and self-discipline
The Dispersal of Discipline (Foucalt)
The idea that surveillance measures become dispersed through a range of social institutions
Synoptic Surveillance
The idea that all members of the public are now engaged in the surveillance of each other, including the most powerful
Surveillant Assemblages
The combination of different technologies to create a data copy of an individual
Actuarial Justice
A strategy to reduce crime by using statistical information from gathered data to identify likely offenders
Categorical Suspicion
When people are placed under suspicion of wrongdoing because they belong to a particular category or group
Detterence
Discouraging an action through instilling fear of the consequences
Rehabilitation
To restore a person’s health and wellbeing through therapy and training
Incapacitation
Making an individual incapable of commiting a crime
Restorative Justice / Reparation
Making amend for what has been done wrong
Retribution
The idea that criminals should get punishment equal to the crime
Retributive Justice
Justice in traditional societies where punishments are often severe and cruel, and function only to express anger
Restitutive Justice
The type of justice that exists in modern societies where punishments aim to restore society’s balance by repairing the damage done
Rationalisation
The formal rules, regulations and procedures that govern punishments in modern societies
Transcarceration
The idea that individuals are transferred from one carceral (prison-like) agency to another during their life
Mass Incarceration
The imprisonment of a large proportion of a population that has occurred since the 1970s
Victim
Those who have suffered harm through acts that break the law
Victimology
The study of the impact of crime on victims, victims’ interests and patterns of victimisation
Positivist Victimology
Focuses of ways that victims contribute towards their own victimisation
Critical victimology
Emphasises structural factors for why certain individuals become victims and the state’’s power to apply or deny the status of victim to someone
