Mechanisms to ensure conformity

What did Painter and Farrington find about the effects of streetlights on crime?

During their experiment in stoke on trent, incidence of crime was reduced by 45% by good streetlighting relative to the 2% reduction seen in the control area.

What is the right realist idea of situational crime prevention as outlined by Clarke? (4)

The active reduction of criminal opportunities (rational choice theory). This is done by:

-Targeting specific crimes (e.g. theft)

-Managing/altering criminal areas (e.g. increased CCTV in shops)

-Make crimes more difficult to commit (e.g. locking your doors at night)

What example does Felson give of situational crime prevention?

Port Authority bus terminal, NY, utilised anti-homeless architecture such as small basins in the bathrooms to deter vagrancy

How can we evaluate the idea of situational crime prevention? (4)

It just causes displacement (e.g. different area, different time, different targets and so on) and does not actually reduce crime

It focuses too much on petty, w/c crime over costly white collar and state crimes

It assumes that all criminals act due to rational thought (the people at the NY bus terminal were often intoxicated)

Ignores root causes of crime

What is environmental crime prevention according to Wilson and Kelling?

AKA broken windows theory, states that areas with lasseiz-faire policing and a poor management of image naturally attract crime and so the metaphorical windows must be fixed to prevent crime via environmental improvement and zero tolerance policing.

Where has broken window theory been applied in real life?

On the NYC subway, the clean car program wiped out vandalism of subway cars by scrapping any cars with graffiti on them.

How can we evaluate broken window theory using the example of NYC from 1993-1996?

It is hard to prove the efficacy of zero tolerance policing. For example, whilst murders decreased by 50%, murder attempts stayed the same. This is because improvements in emergency medical care prevented deaths but not the violent crime itself

What is the idea of social and community crime prevention?

This is an idea that long-term strategies to combat the roots of crime (e.g. poverty) is the best prevention method.

What was Weikart’s Perry pre-school project?

58 black w/c children from Michigan aged 3-4 received an active learning playgroup session every weekday morning from 1962-1967. When these children were monitored until age 41 it was found that they were more likely to own homes and less likely to have been arrested over 5 times (only 36% had been by age 40!)

How can we evaluate the Perry preschool project? (2)

Not representative OR reliable (hard to replicate, small sample size, only one region, ethnicity and age group)

Overemphasis on visible w/c crime and pre-existing prejudices. Why didn’t they target white m/c kids who are likely to grow up and commit white collar crime?

How does Whyte evaluate ALL of these methods?

He argues that prevention strategies only target visible, w/c crime like robbery. White collar, green and state crimes are largely ignored despite being far more costly and deadly.