Unit 4: Crime Prevention

Unit 4: Crime Prevention

1. Types of crime prevention

   • Situational crime prevention
     • Clarke, 1992 - make it more difficult to commit crime & benefit from it
   • Defensible Space
     • Newman - changing the design of the streets to make them safer
   • Target hardening
     • Making it harder to steal; eg. lock windows

2. Social & Community Crime Prevention

   • Significantly lower delinquency, fewer arrests & cautions by those who had attended such a group; 31% of programme group arrested compared to 51% of control group
   • CRITICISM - very expensive, £7,500 per child; not every community can afford it

3. Environmental Crime Prevention

   • Wilson & Kellings Broken Window thesis
   • Zero tolerance approach, right realist approach
   • CRITICISM - difficult to assess the effectiveness

4. Culture Control, Garland

   • Government has given up trying to prevent crime
   • Wants to manage it & people's attitudes to it
   • Replaces traditional model of punishing & rehabilitating

5. Situational Crime Prevention

   • Make it more difficult to commit crime, Clarke 1992
   • Natural surveillance & fear reduction are enhanced
   • CRITICISM - ignores root causes of crime such as poverty & poor socialisation; doesn't provide a long term solution to reduce crime

6. Actuarialism, Feeley&Simon

   • Government seeks to manage unruly groups
   • Shift from managing criminal behaviour to managing potentional criminal behaviour