3.2

• Environmental design


  • Influence potential offenders by giving them opportunities for crime
  • Effect people's ability to control their surrounding
• Designing out crime


  Architects and town planners change the physical layout of an area
• Defensible spaces


  • Clear boundaries so it is clear who should be there
  • Low crime rates
  • Territoriality - environment encourages a sense of ownership amongst residents
  • Natural surveillance - building features allow residents to identify and observe strangers
  • Safe image - design gives the impression of a safe neighbourhood
  • Safe location - insulated from outside crime
• Indefensible spaces


  • Confused areas of public space with anonymous walkways and stairways
  • Belong to no one, cared for by no one, observed by no one
  • Concealed entrances
  • Negative image labelled and targeted by offenders
• 55% of high rise blocks in NY observed by Newman had crime in public spaces
• CPTED


  Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design - adopted Newman's ideas in the US
• Alice Coleman analysed 4099 blocks of flats in 2 London boroughs and found poor design produced crime and anti-social behaviour
• 3 design features encourage crime: anonymity, lack of surveillance and easy escape
• Lisson Green in W London had 55% reduction of crime after removal of overhead walkways
• Some police forces now employ architectural liaison to design out crime at design stage
• Situational crime prevention


  Involves target hardening by changing the physical environment to make it harder to commit the crime
• Felson's routine activity theory


  Emphasises the importance of a 'capable guardian' protecting potential crime targets
• Rational choice theory


  If an offender fears that residents will challenge them they stay away from the area
• Gated Lanes


  Blocking entrances to alleys or lanes between houses so only the residents may access it
• • Criticisms of environmental design: Focuses on defence from outsiders, but insiders commit crime too
  • Can't defend against offences that don't involve physical intrusion of the space
  • Cul de sacs - residents who are out all day can't practise surveillance showing how social factors can interact with environmental factors
  • Some housing estates have high crime rates due to housing allocation policies
• An area's reputation can cause high crime rates, eg) if police regard an estate as crime ridden they police it more, arrest more and a higher crime rate will be recorded creating a worse reputation
• Token economies


  • Behaviour modification - prisons/ psychiatric/ young offenders hospitals
  • Operant learning theory - Skinner = rewarded behaviour likely to be repeated
  • Achieves social control by having a list of socially desirable behaviour for which the prisoner earns a token
• Hobbs & Holts study showed success in Alabama whereby behaviour changes lasted the 14 months of the study
• Behaviour may be modified for the institution (which makes them easier to deal with) but doesn't meet their needs for rehab etc for release and the future
• Behaviour tactics: ASBOs, Criminal Behaviour Orders, institutional tactics, courts, probation service, prison
• Phased discipline - Applies within institution or wider society first offence dealt with leniently but latter offences dealt with more harshly
• Gaps in state provision (means social control by agencies is ever complete): Resources, New Technology, Unreported crime, Existing laws
• Only 40% of crimes are reported eg) 1 in 4 rapes, An estimates 2.3 million domestic abuses cases occurred in 219-20 but only 759,000 were reported to police, White collar crime goes unreported
• Social Media - there has been debate about the responsibility of platforms for offensive and harmful material that appears there
• Germany enacted a law in 2017 requiring sites to quickly remove hate speech, fake news and illegal material with fines of up to 50m euros
• In 2019 Australia passed a law requiring companies to notify police or promptly remove videos depicting terrorist acts, murder, attempted murder, torture, rape or kidnap. Executives of companies that fail to comply can be jailed for 3 years