Violent crime

Question 1

Gives examples of violent crime…

Answer 1

homicide, murder, manslaughter, battery, assault, rape

Question 2

Why does Social and legal responses vary over time and between places, what is it dependent on?

Answer 2

• penological thinking, priorities and fashions

- rise and fall of public, media and political concern

Question 3

What are the aims of prison?

Answer 3

Retribution and deterrence –> incapacitation.

Question 4

What do prison sentences show about the trends in policing violent crime?

Answer 4

Trend towards more and longer custodial sentences
bifurcation (Bottoms, 1977)
Dangerousness debate: average sentence length is getting longer (1994: 22 - 2004: 26 months) and amount of immediate custody convictions are increasing (1994: 22% to 2004: 31%)

Question 5

What have we seen, and why, with the rise of correctional methods to punish violent criminals?

Answer 5

• Revival in recent years
• Structured programmes for offenders in prison, or on probation e.g. offender behaviour programmes
  Using cognitive behavioural approaches
  Anger management and self control skills
• Problems of rising prison population, consequences for long term prisoners on release, and expense

Question 6

How do the centre of social justice define gang crime?

Answer 6

Street-based group of young people who engage in criminal activity and violence - shared collective identity

Question 7

What are the three key ways gangs are policed? Who should be doing this to be the most efficient?

Answer 7

1) Prevention: social programmes to prevent formation of gangs and gang behaviour
2) Intervention: community and social projects working with gangs to target problem behaviours and encourage members to leave the gangs
3) Suppression: targeting serious and chronic offenders through legislation and police intervention

• Need a multi-agency involvement, with multiple approaches e.g. police, community, school, family, prisoners, ex-gang members youth worker, peers, health practitioners (Butler, 2004)

Question 8

What are the problems with policing gang violence? (3)

Answer 8

• Focus on suppression rather than social influences, not the causes
• Failure to identify and support long term approaches
• Failure to support grass roots charities that tackle gangs

Question 9

What are suggested solutions for the problems associated with policing gang crime? (4)

Answer 9

• National response with 190 recommendations focussing on social breakdown
• Need for immediate response
• Need for medium-term initiatives for building trust and positive relations
• Need for long term approach for future prevention.

Question 10

Give examples of crime reduction initiatives when policing the night time economy? (8)

Answer 10

• Identifying and targeting hotspots of violent behaviour
• Inter-agency cooperation e.g. bouncers, licencing agency
• Training and registration of bar staff
• Design of pubs and clubs e.g. monitored exits
• Staggering closing times
• Provision of late night transport
• Use of Penalty Notices for Disorder e.g. fines are quick and effective
• Street Pastors (multi-agency) more about stopping victimisation

Question 11

Is homicide increasing or decreasing?

Answer 11

decreasing

Question 12

Who are the most common offender and victims of homicide?

What type of homicide is the biggest type?

Answer 12

Male Offender
Female victim
most likely to be known to each other
corporate negligence

Question 13

What are the 3 responses to homicide?

Answer 13

1) Strategies to reduce overall frequency of interpersonal violence - before it gets to this point
2) Identification of high risk people, locations or situations
3) Measures to reduce likelihood that an assault will end lethally e.g. plastic cups in clubs

Question 14

What has been a debated concept surrounding homicide about how it is consider a crime?

Answer 14

Debate over whether homicide should be considered a distinct phenomenon - should it be considered the same as serious assault but just happens to have a different outcome

Question 15

What was the Tackling Knives Action Programme (Ward and Diamond, 2009)?

Answer 15

• 10 month intensive initiative in 10 forces to reduce carrying of knives, related homicide and serious stabbings among 13-19year olds
• intelligence-led patrolling of weapon-related violence hotspots, increased use of stop and search, targeting gangs, returning at risk unsupervised children to homes
• Weapons awareness courses, posters, DVDs, focus groups, youth crime forums and youth conferences
• Decrease in sharp-instrument related violence in general, but no change in victims under 19, and slight increase in victims 20 and over
• Worked for reducing violence in general but not violence resulting in homicide

Question 16

What is ‘operation trident’?

Answer 16

Major coordinated strategy on gun crime by gangs with a national brief, London 1998

• Intelligence gathering and analysis with operational arm
• Success at detecting offenders
• Success attributed to close working of key members of black community with the police
• Good public-police relationship led to more information sharing