prevention

• types of crime prevention

  • environmental crime prevention
  • situational crime prevention
  • social and community crime prevention
• situational crime prevention

  • type of prevention that focuses on reducing the opportunities of crime / deterring potential offenders
  • based on Clarke's rational choice theory
  • involves target hardening - making specific targets of crime more difficult to access
• Clarke - features of situational crime prevention

  1. directed at specific crimes
  2. involves managing or altering immediate environment of the crime
  3. aim at increasing the efforts and risks of committing
• examples of situational crime prevention

  • cctv
  • security systems
  • shutters in shops
  • gated lanes
• felson - New York bus terminal - situational crime prevention

  • port authority bus terminal provided deviant opportunities
  • luggage thefts, drug dealing, vagrancy
  • re-shaped physical environment
  • e.g made smaller hand basins to stop homeless people living in toilets
• a03 of situational crime prevention

  • displacement
  • focuses on streets crime - not white collar or state crime
  • assumes criminals make rational decisions
  • ignores root causes of crime
• chaiken et al - displacement

  • found that a crackdown on subway robberies in New York only displaced crime
  • several forms of displacement:

  1. spatial - moving somewhere else
  2. temporal - different time
  3. target - different victim
  4. tactical - using a different method
  5. functional - different type of crime
• environmental crime prevention

  • type of prevention that aims to eliminate all signs of disorder/ anti-social behaviour
  • influenced by wilson and kellings broken windows theory
  • right realist approach
• wilson and kelling - broken windows theory

  argue the idea that any area that shows signs of physical disorder give the impression that there is low social control which attracts criminals to commit crime there
• examples of environmental crime prevention

  • zero tolerance policing
  • environmental improvement - cleaning graffiti, rebuilding communities
  • ASBOs
  • no alcohol/smoking zones
• wilson and kelling - zero tolerance policing

  • use twofold strategy to crack down on any disorder

  1. environmental improvement - changing broken windows, towing abandoned cars
  2. zero tolerance policing - police tackling all signs of disorder no matter how small
• clean car program - environmental crime prevention

  • cars were taken out of service immediately if they had any graffiti on them
• NYPD 1990 zero tolerance policing

  • tackled drug dealing, beggars, street traders
  • as a result crime dropped between 30-50%
• situational vs environmental

  • situational - preventing local crimes, reduce opportunities for crimes
  • environmental - preventing regional crimes, eliminating ALL types of crime
• ASBOs

  • Antisocial behaviour order
  • introduced to correct minor acts of deviance
  • can go to Jail if breached
  • e.g vandalism, drunken / threatening behaviour, playing loud music at night
  • order restricts you from doing things such as: going to a particular place, drinking in the street
• naked rambler - ASBO example

  • 53 year old man recieved ASBO stating he had to cover his genitalia from the public
  • jailed for 11 months after he denied the order
• a03 of environmental crime prevention

  • displacement
  • young - argued the success of zero tolerance policing was a myth. politicians and police just wanted to take credit for falling crime
  • ignores state crimes, white collar crimes
  • leads to discrimination by police
  • ASBOs - be jailed for petty crimes e.g loud music
  • zero tolerance not necessary - crime rates have fallen without use of this
• social and community crime prevention

  • prevention that looks at potential offender and their social context
  • aim is to remove the conditions that lead to individuals committing crime
  • tackle root cause of crime e.g poverty, unemployment
  • Left realist approach
• Perry pre-school project - social and community crime prevention

  • Perry pre-school project for disadvantaged Black children in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
  • experimental group of 3-4 year olds was offered a two- year intellectual enrichment programme - regular interventions from social workers
  • control group was not given enrichment programme
  • longitudinal study - by 40, experimental group graduated and in employment, less than 50% arrests than control group
• examples of social and community prevention

  • sure start
  • parenting classes
  • youth / community centres e.g youthscape
• causes of crime - left realists

  • subcultures
  • relative deprivation
  • marginalisation
• a03 of social and community crime prevention

  • new right/ right realists - victim blaming
  • does not tackle crimes of the elite
  • Foucault and garland - interpret these strategies being about surveillance and control
  • Can be costly