AC 3.2 CONTRIBUTION OF AGENCIES IN ACHIEVING SOCIAL CONTROL

• ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN: 

  • Involves what a neighborhood looks like and how its designed 
  • Theory known as Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) 
  • Idea that crime results from the opportunities presented by the physical environment, we should be able to alter the environment, so crime is less able to occur 
• CPTED: 

  • Natural surveillance – should give criminals the feeling their being watched 
  • Social management – residents should police their own behaviour to give a sense of a safe location 
  • Maintenance – spaces should be well maintained, links to broken window theory 
  • Territorial reinforcement – residents will take responsibility and look after the space so it should seem to be owned by residents 
  • Natural access control – people should be physically guided e.g., pavements, gateways, to indicate where is public and where is private
• Defensible spaces: 

  Clear boundaries, obvious who has a right to be there, these have lower crime rates due to 4 key features; 
• defensible spaces:

  • Territoriality – encourages a sense of ownership, residents are in control of it e.g., cul-de-sacs project a private image encouraging a sense of community  
  • Natural surveillance – features of buildings allow residents to identify and observe strangers  
  • A safe image – should give the impression of a safe neighborhood, a negative image will be stigmatised and targeted by strangers 
  • A safe location – neighborhoods located in the middle of a wider crime free area tend to have lower crime rates
• Indefensible spaces: 

  Areas where crime is more likely to occur in ‘confused’ areas of public space, they belong to no one are cared for by no one and observed by no one 
• CPTED Research: 

  • Newman carried out a study of high-rise blocks in New York, found 55% of crime occurred in public areas e.g., stairways, lifts 
  • Damilola Taylor was killed in a concreate stairwell in condemned housing estate 
  • Gated lanes seen to reduce crime rates as they provide a physical barrier, increasing the effort required to commit crimes, however they don’t work against criminals living within the gated area 
• CPTED and Theory: 

  Situational crime prevention – involves target hardening e.g., barriers to prevent access 

  Felson’s Routine activity theory – mutual surveillance acts as a guardian  

  Rational choice theory – sees offenders acting rationally, if intruders fear residents they become more likely to stay away from an area 
• Criticisms of CPTED: 

  • Focuses on defence, but insiders commit crime too 
  • Cannot prevent all types of crime e.g., cyber crime, white collar crime and corporate crime 
  • If there's no residents home, then there is no natural surveillance 
  • An areas reputation rather than its design may cause a high crime rate   
• Prison Design: 

  • Prison design can impact crime  
  • Traditional design is the panopticon an all-seeing shape  
  • Concept is to allow an observer to view all criminals at once without them being able to tell  
  • Visibility is a trap  
  • Design ensures a sense on permanent visibility  
• Surveillance Theory: 

  • Self-surveillance is an important way of achieving social control 
  • We know we might be being watched so control our behaviour 
• American Supermax Jails: 

  • Most secure levels of custody 
  • Objective is to provide long-term segregated housing for prisoners with the highest security risk 
  • Terrorists and murderers in solitary confinement  
  • Ultra-high security, cost 2 or 3 times the amount of a traditional maximum-security prison 
• Bastoy Prison: 

  • Classed as a human ecological prison  
  • Prisoners live in houses in self-sustaining village 
  • Produces a low reoffending rate 20% compared to 60% in the UK
• BEHAVIOURAL TACTICS: 

  Antisocial behaviour orders – introduced by Tony Blair to deal with low level antisocial behaviour e.g., vandalism, graffiti, breaking an ASBO was a criminal offence and punishable by a prison sentence of up to 5 years  

  
  

  Labelling theory and ASBO’s - ASBO’s not that successful many breaching there orders repeatadly, labelling theorists argue labelling a person as criminal or deviant could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, the ASBO could become a badge of honor to some 
• Criminal Behaviour Orders: 

  • Due to criticisms of ASBO’s they have been replaced with civil injunctions and criminal behaviour orders 

  Injunctions – deal with low level nuisance, can mean up to 2 years in jail for adults and three-month detention order for under 18s 
• Criminal Behaviour Orders – deal with seriously anti-social behaviour, lasts for at least 2 years for adults and 1 to 2 years for under 18s, breaching a CBO can mean up to 5 years in prison or 2 years detention, CBO’s have both negative and positive requirements 

  Negative requirements – forbids a person from doing something e.g., going to certian places 

  Positive requirements – can require a person to do something positiveto improve their behaviour e.g., going to a drug treatment programme
• Token Economies: 

  • Aims to achieve social control by drawing up a list of desirable behaviours e.g., obeying the rules, staying drug free 
  • If a prisoner behaves in the desired way, they earn a token  
  • Prisoners can exchange tokens for rewards e.g., phone calls, sweets 
  • Through this selective reinforcement desirable behaviour becomes more likely and undesirable behaviour less likely 
• Effectiveness of Token Economies: 

  • They work well inmates are in prison  
  • Studies have found when the offender leaves prison the reinforcement stops, the desired behaviors then disappear, however it is suggested they return to crime more slowly  
  • Make prisoners manageable while in prison, risk that their behaviour is simply modified to suit the situation rather than help to actually rehabilitate them  
  • They may work simply because of the extra attention given to prisoners or because the rules are spelled put more clearly to them
• INSTITUTIONAL TACTICS: 

  • Many different shapes and sizes 
  • Families, schools, prisons, armies 
  • All have rules on how their members must behave  
  • Punishments for breaking rules  
  • Rewards for conforming  
• Criminal Justice Institutions: 

  • Courts can sentence offenders to various punishments  
  • Achieve both individual and general deterrence  
  • Convicted are put off repeating their crime  
  • Serves as a lesson to the general public 
  • Courts can use community orders to rehabilitate offenders, e.g., drug addiction treatment  
  • Probation services monitor behaviour of offenders 
  • If offenders fail to meet their license they can be sent back to prison or be re-sentenced 
• Prison rules: 

  • Escaping from prison, using drugs/alcohol, being in possession of forbidden items, not listening to staff 
  • Punishments include solitary confinement, a caution, or loss of privileges 
• Phased Discipline: 

  • Common way of achieving social control 
  • First offence delt with more leniently e.g., loss of privileges or police caution 
  • Repeat offending is met with stronger sanctions e.g., probation, prison, as an attempt to deter future misbehavior 
• GAPS IN STATE PROVISION

  Resources: 

  • State agency funding come mainly from taxpayers' money  
  • Limits on how much taxpayers are willing to pay 
  • Government sectors have competing demands for resources e.g., NHS, education 
• GAPS IN STATE PROVISION

  Budget Cuts: 

  • Spending cuts due to financial crisis, reducing effectiveness of achieving social control 
  • Between 2010 and 2018 police budget was cut by 19% fall in 20,000 police numbers 
  • Between 2010 and 2018 CPS lost a third of its staff  
• GAPS IN STATE PROVISION

  New Technology: 

  • Less able to achieve social control due to extra burden imposed on criminal investigations by digital technology 
  • CPS unable to cope with huge amount of data being generated by technology 
  • Cost of using technology e.g., DNA profiling also poses limitation on polices ability to investigate offences  
• GAPS IN STATE PROVISION

  Unreported Crimes: 

  • Criminal justice agencies can only investigate, prosecute and convict offenders if their offence has been reported 
  • Around only 40% of crimes are actually reported 
  • Only 1 in 4 rape cases are reported  
  • White collar and corporate crime often go unreported as people are unaware of it  
• GAPS IN STATE PROVISION

  Existing Laws: 

  • Social control can only be achieved if there are suitable rules in place to begin with 
  • If a new type of harm emerges but there is no existing law to forbid it, then state agencies are unable to bring prosecutions