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Crime prevention strategies
Effectiveness Of Situational Crime Prevention
Strategies to reduce crime
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Society is always looking for ways to prevent crime. Alternative crime prevention strategies are constantly developed to keep up with an evolving society and changing offending behaviours. Crime prevention strategies aim to reduce the likelihood of criminal behaviours and opportunities for crime. The two main areas of crime prevention are situational crime prevention and social crime prevention. Situational crime prevention aims to make it more difficult for criminals to carry out a crime and therefore stop a crime before it is committed. Social crime prevention attempts to address the underlying social factors that may lead to criminal behaviour. They both use their various techniques in order to effectively reduce criminal activity within
Situational crime prevention is an idea criminologists use in order to reduce the chances of crime initially taking place. This theory does not aim to punish criminals after the crime has taken place like the criminal justice system does, but however the opposite, it aims to reduce the chances of the crime taking place to start with. Ron Clarke (2005) describes this theory as an approach that aims to reduce the opportunities out there for crime, involving rational choice theory. Clark focuses on three methods within this theory, directing at specific crimes, altering the environment we live in and aiming to reduce the benefits of committing crimes.
To begin with, criminal justice is a system that is designed to maintain social control, which means it is a necessary aspect of every society since “Laws are the conditions under which independent and isolated men united to form a society” (Beccaria, 1764: 16). In order words, crime control deals with the methods that are taken by a society to reduce its crime. As a matter of fact, there are various crime control strategies from community policing to risk assessments. In addition to the different tactics for controlling crime, there are several theories that not only attempt to explain the causes of crime, but also outline different ways to handle offenders; for example, deterrence, rehabilitation, and even retribution. Now, it is important to realize that there is no perfect model for crime control since there are advantages and disadvantages to every system. With this in mind, it is clear that the crime control has changed throughout recent decades, and one can easily identify these changes by drawing from situations that involve race, gender, and two theoretical perspectives.
Several strategies that can change living conditions and reduce crime rates are education, employment, and decreased inequality. “Changes in the structure of inequality would result in changes in crime rates” (pg.284 Social Inequality). The more opportunity is granted the less likely and individual is prone to committing crimes. Additionally, the government must implement changes to the current income guidelines which denies and reduces resources for many individuals living in poverty. Supplying low-income families with adequate means to generate and sustain access to opportunities such as safe and affordable housing, employment, and high-quality education can allow low-income families to change their social and financial class which can reduce the level of need decrease the amount of crime which often occurs to lack of resources. “Levels of criminal activity are responsive to changes in the distribution of income…a one percent reduction in inequality was shown to reduce crime to a larger extent than one percent increase in deterrence’’ (pp. 126- 127) (pg. 284 Social Inequality).
There have been many contributors when it came to tackling anti-social behaviour and preventing crime however, the most influential contributors are Wilson and Kelling. They came up with the theory of broken window which will be further explain in this essay. This essay will outline the broken window theory, as well as explain what is meant by broken window. Finally it will give examples that exemplify the broken window theory. (Maguire, Morgan and Reiner, 2012)
All these types of prevention, whether they are viewed from the perspective of a doctor, or a criminologist, are helpful in how our society approaches crime in an age where as crime becomes deeper and more complicated, so must our methods of understanding be expanded.
A Study of Suicide: An overview of the famous work by Emile Durkheim, Ashley Crossman, 2009, http://sociology.about.com/od/Works/a/Suicide.htm, 25/12/2013
Ronald V Clarke originally developed the idea of situational crime prevention in the 1980’s (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005). This particular crime prevention theory addresses techniques that increase the effort required to commit the crime, increase the risks involved with committing the crime, reducing the reward gained by the offender after committing the crime, reducing the provocation between the offender and others and remove excuses (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005). Majority of crime is believed to be committed because there are no high risks of being caught and the rewards outweigh the risks (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005). Increasing the effort by controlling access to locations and target hardening can deflect many offenders, as more effort is needed to commit the crime (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005). Another main technique would be to increase the risks; this may be achieved by extending guardianship, creating natural surveillance or artificial surveillance such as CCTV (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005).
This essay will talk about what Situational Crime Prevention( SCP) is, it will also discuss the theoretical assumptions that underpin this approach, for example, the nature of the offender as well as examining how the SCP strategy has been used to deal with crime as well as the general pros and cons of such an approach.
Situational crime prevention is also referred to as opportunity reduction. That is making it more difficult for the offender to commit a crime; in this case making it harder to steal a bicycle or steal property from a motor vehicle. Situational strategies include controlling access to and improving surveillance
Durkheim was a functionalist, and theorised that a holistic social narrative could be identified which would explain individual behaviour. He argued that, whilst society was made up of its members, it was greater than the sum of its parts, and was an external pressure that determined the behaviour of the individuals within it. At that time, suicide rates in Europe were rising, and so the causes of suicide were on the agenda. Since suicide is seen as an intrinsically personal and individual action, establishing it as having societal causes would be a strong defence for Durkheim’s functionalist perspective. Durkheim used the comparative method to study the official suicide rates of various European countries. While he was not the first to notice the patterns and proportional changes of suicide rates between different groups in European societies, it was this fact that was the foundation of his theory – why did some groups consistently have much higher rates than others? This supports the idea that it was the external pressures placed on certain groups within society that induced higher rates of suicide, and is the basis of Durkheim’s work.
“Suicide is not chosen; it happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain” (I-10). Ending a life is a big step in the wrong direction for most. Suicide is the killing of oneself. Suicide happens every day, and everyday a family’s life is changed. Something needs to be done to raise awareness of that startling fact. Suicide is a much bigger problem than society will admit; the causes, methods, and prevention need to be discussed more openly.
Different schools of thought propose varying theoretical models of criminality. It is agreeable that criminal behaviour is deep rooted in societies and screams for attention. Biological, Social ecological and psychological model theories are key to helping researchers gain deeper comprehension of criminal behaviour and ways to avert them before they become a menace to society. All these theories put forward a multitude of factors on the outlooks on crime. All these theories have valid relevancy to continuous research on criminal behaviour.
The central claim of the approach is that if a crime occurs, the following three elements must be present; a person must be motivated to commit the offence; a vulnerable victim must be available; and insufficient protection to prevent the criminal offence. It also states that crime is normal and depending on the circumstances, crime will occur. The crimes that are considered to be crimes that are committed by regular people are: copyright infringement, related to peer-to-peer file sharing, employee theft and corporate crime. The routine activity theory is based on the assumption that crime can be committed by anyone given an opportunity and that victims are given choices on whether to be victims by mainly not placing themselves in situations where crime can be committed against them. Although this theory is controversial among criminologists who believe in the social causes of crime, a routine activity theory can help us understand crimes such as corporate crime, copyright infringement, etc. Crime occurs when offenders are at the same place as the target, without an effective guardian. If one or more of the controllers is present, however, the chances of crime are greatly reduced. The effectiveness of the people involved will depend, in part, on the tools they have available. Taking away or adding certain elements will alter the chances of
It is necessary for criminologists to examine and hypothesize around ecological factors when considering crime and criminality. These factors shape human behavior and have a large effect on their criminality. It could help criminologists identify people who are at-risk of committing a crime, or even being a crime victim. This would allow them to help predict and reduce future
Social harmony has become a powerful and popular indicator to asset a population’s quality of life. So much so, people’s attitude toward crime rates has shifted from a lukewarm state to a profoundly sensitive level. Accordingly, the public’s increasing fears have translated into more and more restrictive policies to punish crimes. Therefore, crime prevention is considered as a strategic approach to lessen the probability of criminal behaviors in a political community, and to maintain social-control following the heated debates on civilians’ safety.