Criminology 4.1 policies

• Biological policy development - Biochemical (Heroin addiction)


  Drug used - Methadone

  This is a long term drug used to prevent withdrawal symptoms

  Strengths - it is free and a long term alternative

  Weakness - individual must drink this at the pharmacy to stop them giving it to others.
• Biological policy development - biochemical (Diet and nutrition)


  Theorist who suggested the idea - Gesch

  Supplemented prisoners diets with vitamins, minerals and fatty acids that are good for them.

  Strengths - behaviour of prisoners improved. Reduction of up to 37% of violent behaviour. Controls hyperactivity.

  Weakness - can be expensive for prisons and prisoners may refuse to eat the food
• Biological policy development - neurological (Lobotomy)

  Theorist - Moir and Jessel

  Removal of connections between parts of the brain. This is used to treat paranoid schizophrenia, sexually motivated and violent criminals.

  Strengths - can make criminals and patients calmer

  Weakness - High risk of brain damaging. Unethical.
• Biological policy development - genetic (compulsory sterilisation)


  Known as forced sterilisation. Removing a persons capacity to reproduce through surgical procedures. Government mandated to involuntary sterilise a specific group of people.

  Strengths - public may feel safer and protection from criminals and potential criminals

  Weakness - violates human privacy, decency and human rights. Extremely unethical and can cause medical complications which could be unethical.
• Individualistic policy development - operant learning (token economies)

  Theories - Skinner

  Behaviour modification program used in prisons. A list of desirable behaviours is put together and if the behaviour behaves in the desired way, they earn a token. Tokens can be exchanged for rewards.

  Strengths - good behaviour becomes more likely. make prisoners more manageable whilst in prisons.

  Weakness - once offender leaves the prison the desirable behaviour will stop. Some prisons withhold food and drink as negative reinforcement which is taking away human rights.
• Individualistic policy development - psychological (Aversion therapy)

  Theorist - Eysneck

  Used for sex offenders. Offender is asked to think about a sexual fantasy. A strong aversive stimulus (something unpleasant) is administered like an electric shock. This is then repeated until offender associates arousal with the stimulus.

  Strengths - makes sex offenders reduce deviant thoughts and may reduce offending.

  Weakness - abusing human rights. Limited success as it is only short term .
• Individualistic policy development - psychodynamic (psychoanalysis)


  Theorist - Freud

  A treatment where patient verbalises their thoughts through a variety of methods such as hypnosis and free association. This aims to access unconscious, repressed thoughts which are believed to have lead to criminal activity.

  Strengths - long term alternative. Patients feel like they are being supported.

  Weakness - Time consuming and unlikely to provide quick answers. Patients could discover painful memories that were deliberately repressed.
• Individualistic policy development - Aggression Replacement training 


  Involves anger control techniques for dealing with emotions and moral reasoning training that challenges attitudes.

  Strength - Some evaluations have found this results in lower convictions rates showing it is effective.

  Weakness - some evaluations have found that although thinking skills improved, criminal behaviour didn't.
• Sociological policy development - policies to tackle poverty

  Theory - Merton strain theory

  Introducing better welfare benefits, wages and job securities to reduce people turning to crime.

  Strength - gives everyone a more equal change of achieving success by legal means

  Weakness - may lead to higher tax rates which may result in low productivity in the economy - more unemployment
• Sociological policy development - diversion policies

  Theory - Labelling theory

  This aims to keep the offender out of the justice system to avoid them being labelled as a criminal. Formals diversion policies are examples like requiring an offender to attend an anger management program to avoid prosecution. Informal diversion policies are examples like using discretion to not charge someone.

  Strength - reduces costs for police, programs may be useful for offender and reduce crime rates.

  Weakness - offenders may see behaviour as acceptable as they didn't get punished and prosecuted.
• Sociological policy development - ZTP (Zero tolerance policy)


  Zero tolerance towards all crimes. Concentrating on tackling quality of life offences such as begging, prostitution and vandalism.

  Strength - crime fell after ZTP was introduced in New York in the 1990s, has an immediate effect on crime.

  Weakness - fails to tackle structural causes of crime such as inequality, only focuses on low level street crime. Statistically insignificant changes in crime.
• Sociological policy development - democratic policing

  Theory - left realism

  Police choosing to involve the local communities in deciding priorities. Focusing on crimes that victimise the disadvantaged rather than offences like drug possession.

  Strengths - has had success like neighbourhood policing and police support officers have been introduced to build better relationships with the community.

  Weakness - may ignore other crimes and see them as insignificant like possession of drugs. Only focuses on community based crimes.
• Sociological policy development - profiling

  Theory - surveillance theory

  Using data to draw up a statistical picture of likely offenders. Individuals can be profiled according to specific characteristics.

  Strengths - has potential to predict criminal behaviour and narrow down list of suspects.

  Weakness - only be applied to certain crimes like murder and rape. Can be discriminatory as it may show certain groups that are likely to offend. Official crime statistics may not be accurate so an accurate profile might not be made.