Topic 9 - Control, Punishment and Victims

Question 1

Positivist Victimology

Answer 1

Miers argues that there are factors that lead to some individuals or groups being a more likely victim of crime (Eg. the homeless are the most vulnerable victims of crime, due to lack of resources and power)

Miers determines some victims provoke behaviour that would lead to their own victimisation
This can be applied to both ends of the spectrum:
- Middle-class victims of crime have contributed to their own victimisation by ostentatiously displaying their wealth, therefore encouraging crimes such as theft
- Working class are more likely to provoke threats, leading to violent crimes against them.

C - ignores wider structural factors e.g. poverty

Question 2

Critical Victimology

Answer 2

Mawby and Walklate suggest victimisation is a form of structural powerlessness e.g. from patriarchy & poverty

Tombs and Whyte believe a ‘victim’ is a social construct. Through the criminal justice system, the state applies the label of the victim to some but withholds it from others, and therefore have an ideological function of ‘failure to label’ or ‘de-labelling’. By concealing the true extent of victimisation and its real causes, it hides the crimes of the powerful.

C - ignores the roles individuals themselves, e.g. not making home secure

Question 3

What is Situational Crime Prevention?

Answer 3

Clarke believes that SCP is a pre-emptive approach, focussed on reducing opportunities to commit crime, rather than improving society or institutions.

Question 4

What displacement is caused by SCP? [5]

Answer 4

Spatial - moving elsewhere (eg. - if a house’s doors are locked, criminals will move to a different house to see if that is unlocked)

Temporal - Different time (eg. - doors are more likely to be unlocked in the daytime, not the night time)

Target - Choosing different target (eg. - if criminals are looking to kidnap, they may choose another child if one is with their parents)

Tactical - Different method (eg. - suicide is prevented by the fact you can only buy 2 packs of paracetamol at one time)

Functional - Different type of crime

Question 5

What is Environmental Crime Prevention?

Answer 5

• The Broken Windows thesis by Wilson & Kelling refers to disorderly neighbourhoods with an absence of formal social control (police) and informal control (community).
• Police are merely concerned with serious crime and turn a blind eye to nuisance behaviour.

Question 6

What is Zero Tolerance Policing?

Answer 6

• Wilson and Kelling advocate a ‘zero tolerance policing’ approach whereby the police crack down and tackle any form of disorder and repair any disorderly signs in neighborhoods (eg. graffiti).

Question 7

What is Social & Community Crime Prevention? [2]

Answer 7

Improving policing - Over 90% of crimes are cleared up by police as a result of public info, so need to maintain public confidence in police.
Intervention - Perry pre-school project for disadvantaged black children aged 3-4 offered a 2 yr course with weekly home visits - by 40 they had significantly fewer arrests

Question 8

What is surveillance?

Answer 8

Surveillance is the monitoring of public behavior for the purpose of crime control. In today’s society, surveillance is carried out by the use of CCTV cameras, biometric scanning, information databases etc.

Question 9

Foucault - Types of power [2]

Answer 9

Sovereign power - the monarch had absolute power over people and their bodies. Control was asserted by inflicting visible punishment on the body. This was a brutal and emotional spectacle, such as a public execution.
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Disciplinary power - became dominant from the 19th century, and involves a new system of discipline that seeks to govern the mind, soul and the body. It does this through surveillance.

Question 10

Punishment - Reducing Crime [3]

Answer 10

One justification of punishment is that it prevents future crime:

Deterrence - punishing an individual discourages them from future offending.
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Rehabilitation - punishment can be used to reform or change offenders so they no longer offend. This can be done so through providing education and anger management courses.

Question 11

Punishment - Retribution

Answer 11

Based on the idea that offenders deserve to be punished and society is entitled to take revenge on the offender

Question 12

How is surveillance used to deter crime?

Answer 12

• Record and monitors public behaviour
• Can have a deterrent effect on criminal behaviour
• Can be used as evidence in court proceedings