crime control, punishment + victims

• what is situational crime prevention?

  an approach that relies on reducing opportunities to commit crime

  the three features of measures aimed at situational crime prevention are: directed at specific crimes, altering immediate environment, increasing risks

  examples; locks, alarms, cctv, card machines rather than coin machines
• evaluation of situational crime prevention

  1. displacement - moves crime to other areas rather than stopping crime
  2. assumes criminals make rational calculations
• environmental crime prevention

  based on broken windows theory - area becomes a magnet for criminality without action

  example - zero tolerance policing and environmental improvement (repairing broken windows, towing cars)

  evidence - new york clean car program took cars with graffiti and returned once clean - reduced graffiti in the subways
• evaluation of environmental crime prevention

  left realists would argue that zero tolerance policing damages the relationship between the police and the community so it is ineffective at tackling crime
• social and community crime prevention

  aim to remove the conditions that introduce individuals to crime

  perry pre-school project - offered a two year intellectual enrichment programme to 3-4 year olds - found 50% of them were earning $20k+ at age 40 compared to 40% of control group, found 36% had been arrested 5+ times by age 40 compared to 55% of control group
• evaluation of social and community crime prevention

  unrepresentative as they used a small sample size of children (58 children) so may not apply to all children
• surveillance


  this is monitoring public behaviour for crime control

  punishments changed over time from physical forms e.g torture and death (sovereign power) to indirect + long term punishments e.g incarceration and rehabilitation (disciplinary power)

  e.g panopticon - can observe each prisoner but prisoners cannot see them - unaware when they are being watched - encourages good behaviour at all times

  modern examples e.g being tagged, visiting probation officers and counselling, and widespread cctv
• evaluation of surveillance

  cctv can lead to displacement

  shoplifters/robbers not put off by cctv
• what is synoptic surveillance?

  everybody watches everybody - not only top-down, can work bottom up e.g through the media
• punishment

  the 4 aims of punishment are:

  1. deterrence - putting people off
  2. incapacitation - public protection
  3. retribution - revenge
  4. rehabilitation - helping offenders so they refrain from offending
• functionalist perspective of punishment


  function of punishment is to uphold social solidarity

  two types of justice:

  1. retributive - severe and cruel punishment
  2. restitutive - restoring how things were - less severe punishment
• evaluation of functionalist perspective

  punishment is not successful at reinforcing social solidarity - many crimes are still committed and reoffending rates are just below 50%
• marxism and punishment


  argue the function of punishment is to maintain existing social order and is a means of defending ruling class property against the lower classes

  e.g prison and capitalist factory both have a similar strict disciplinary style involving loss of liberty
• evaluation of marxism and punishment

  functionalists argue that punishment is a positive thing aiming to restore society and deter future crime
• interactionism and punishment

  prisons function as 'total institutions' that are closed off from the outside world and inmates lives become under the complete control of the prison

  becoming an inmate involves mortification of the self - lose their individual identity e.g removal of personal items and given a number - also under constant surveillance

  effectively makes prisoners more criminal
• positivist victimology

  has three features:

  1. aims to identify patterns in victimisation - identifies who are more likely to become victims
  2. focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence
  3. identifies victims who contributed to their own victimisation

  positivist studies aimed to identify the social and psychological characteristics of victims that make them more vulnerable to crime e.g female, elderly, those who display their wealth
• evaluation of positivist victimology


  bordering on and can easily tip over into victim blaming
• critical victimology

  focuses on two elements:

  1. structural factors e.g patriarchy and poverty place certain groups at greater risk of victimisation
  2. failure to label - state has the power to apply or deny the label of victim to people e.g police decided whether to press charges or not

  e.g safety crimes where employers violation of the law lead to death/injury of workers often explained as the fault of 'accident prone' workers - de-labelling of the crime serves the ideological function by concealing the true extent of victimisation whilst hiding the crimes of the powerful
• evaluation of critical victimology

  disregards the role victims play in bringing victimisation on themselves through their own choices
• patterns of victimisation

  class - poorest groups more likely to be victimised e.g homeless 12x more likely to have experienced violence than the general population

  gender - males at greater risk of becoming victim of violent attacks especially by strangers, about 70% of homicide victims are male - women more likely to be victim of dv, sexual violence, stalking etc

  ethnicity - ethnic minorities at greater risk of being victims in general as well as of racially motivated crimes

  age - younger people more risk of victimisation - infants under the age of 1 most at risk of murder
• impact of victimisation

  serious physical and emotional impact e.g disrupted sleep, feeling helpless, increased security-consciousness

  crime creates indirect victims e.g friends, family, witnesses

  hate crimes create waves of harm that affect others and act as a message to whole communities