Control, Punishment and victimisation

Control, Punishment and victimisation

1. Left Realism

   • Society should focus on uniting, not conflict
   • 'Zero Tolerance' policies would be too harsh an futile as it does not attend the social demands to socialisation
   • They believe that attending social issues such as poverty would combat crime

2. Right Realism

   • Target hardening - CCTV, Anti-Climb paint etc
   • Harsher crime punishment i.e. introduction of ASBOs
   • 'Zero Tolerance' - harsher crime prevention and combat
     • 'Broken Window Thesis' - Wilson and Kelling (1987)
       • Example of 'Zero Tolerance' policy

3. Situational Crime Prevention - Marcus Felson (1998)

   • Crime is sprung up in areas that have low surveillance and or is run down
     • e.g. The Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC, - toilets in the terminal were poorly maintained and watched, this brought around an opportunity and rise in criminal and deviant activities, such as luggage theft, drugs trade, rough sleeping and homosexual liaisons
     • These issues were 'designed' out as the conditions were improved and crime prevention strategies were fitted
   • Criticisms
     • Only works to some extent - does not solve white collar crime and co-operate crimes
     • Makes rational calculations - assumes there are only certain causes
     • Does not focus on the casues of crime and sorts them i.e. poverty. This is a LEFT REALIST criticism

4. Social and community crime prevention - Wilson and Kelling (1990)

   • Aim to solve the root of the cause of crime
   • Stresses firmly on the potential offender and their social context
     • To remove the conditionals that allowed the crime to take place - target hardening - Right Realism
   • The role of the community and informal controls in preventing crime, the main emphasis of policies based on their ideas has been in terms of policy
   • The Perry pre-school project
     • Took children who were seen as disruptive or were from deprived areas and put them through a 'rehabilitation'
       • This was where they would take away the causes of their criminal/deviant behaviour
         • When the child reached 40 and had successfully undergone the project, they were thought to have less criminal/deviant offences
           • Left Realist method

5. Durkheim (1893) - two types of justice

   • Restutive
     • Crime dangers the interdependence of the individuals
       • To repair this interdependent damage the individual is given comphensation
     • Found in more modern societies
     • Aims to restore society's equilibrium
     • Less oppressive than retributive justice
   • Retributive
     • Common in traditional societies'
     • Strong collective conscience in society
       • When offended there is a strong vengeful action from the society against the offender
         • E.g. - Middle East such as Iraq and Iran

6. Marxism

   • E.P. Thompson (1977)
     • Descried how the 18th C punishments such as hanging for crimes such as theft was part of the 'rule of terror' which the oppressive power class (the aristocracy) would play onto the working and poorer classes
   • Georg Rusch and Otto Kirchheimer (1939)
     • Different societies with different economies have different penal systems to suit that society and their economic structure, i.e. capitalist punishments are different to communist punishments as there is more utilitarian difference