9.1 Crime Prevention

• What are the 3 types of crime prevention?

  Situational

  Environmental

  Social & Community
• What did Clarke say about situational crime prevention?


  crime prevention is 'pre-emptive approach that relies on reducing opportunities for crime'

  directed at specific crimes

  managing or altering the immediate environment of crime

  aim to increase the effort and risk in committing crime

  this theory is based in rational choice theory and so assumes that if the risk to committing crime is increased and the reward is decreased people are less likely to commit crime
• What was Felson's example of a situational crime prevention strategy?


  port authority bus terminal in new york was reshaped to successfully 'design crime out
• What are criticisms of situational crime prevention?

  reduces some crime but is often offset by displacement

  focuses on oppportunistic street crime and ignores more costly and harmful corporate and white collar crimes

  assumes criminals make rational calculations which may not be true for crimes of violence or crimes involving substances

  ignores the root causes of crime so may be a poor long-term solution
• What are the 5 strategies of displacement?

  spatial - moving to a different area

  temporal - offending at a different time

  target - choosing a different victim

  tactical - using a different method

  functional - committing a different type of crime
• What did Chaiken et al say about displacement?


  situational crime prevention fails to prevent crime and instead displaces it to another area as offenders move to where targets are more accessible eg. crackdown on new york subway robberies led to more street crime
• What did Wilson & Kelling say about environmental crime prevention?


  book 'broken windows' argues that the signs of disorder found in some neighbourhoods creates the idea that people don't care

  also an absence of both formal (police) and informal (community) social control so without remedial action the situation deteriorates and the neighbourhood enters a spiral of decline
• Zero tolerance policing (environmental crime prevention)

  any sign of disorder should be proactively tackled even if it isn't criminal

  environmental improvement strategy - repairing the community
• What evidence for zero tolerance did Kelling find?


  clean car program meant that cars with any graffiti were immediately removed from the subway and only returned when they were clean

  there was a significant decline in crime, including a 50% decline in homocides
• What are criticisms of zero tolerance (environmental crime prevention)?

  Young - the 'success' of zero tolerance was a myth peddled by politicians keen to take credit for the crime rate that had already been falling since 1985 -- nine years before zero tolerance

  it is preoccupied with petty street crime and ignores more costly corporate crimes

  gives the police free rein to discriminate against minorities and other groups

  it over-emphasises control of disorder rather than tackling the causes of neighbourhood decline

  zero tolerance just lead to the displacement of crime to other areas
• Social & Community crime prevention

  focus on potential offenders and their social context, aiming to remove the conditons that predispose individuals to crime

  longer-term strategies that attempt to tackle the root cause of offending rather than removing opportunities for crime

  more general social reform programs addressing poverty, unemployment etc. may have a role in crime prevention even if it isn't the main goal
• The Perry Pre-School Project

  community crime prevention - a project for disadvantaged black children in michigan, 3-4 year olds were offered a two year intellectual enrichment program which also involved home visits

  longitudinal study followed progress and found by age 40

  they had significantly fewer arrests for violent crime, property crime and drugs

  more had graduated from high school and were employed

  it is calculated that for every dollar spent on the program $17 was saved on state costs
• What are criticisms of all of the crime prevention strategies?

  focus on fairly low-level crimes

  disregards crimes of the powerful and green crime

  reflects the priorities of politicians who are tasked with crime prevention
• What did Whyte say to criticise the crime prevention strategies?


  there is no logical reason for green crimes not being included in crime and disorder partnerships but they are not despite the harm they cause to the community