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how does ron clarke describe situational crime prevention as
as a pre-emptive approach that relies, not on improving society or its institutions, but simply on reducing opportunities for crime'. He identifies three features of measures aimed at situational crime prevention:
They are directed at specific crimes.
They involve managing or altering the immediate environment of the crime.
They aim at increasing the effort and risks of committing crime and reducing the rewards.
clarke argues that theories that try to tackle socialisation or capitalism as the cause of crime do not offer realistic solutions to crime. he argues that we should focus on the immediate crime situation
what is target hardening
situational crime controls use ‘target hardening’ measures such as locking doors and windows increase the effort a burglar needs to make, while increased surveillance in shops via CCTV or security guards increase the likelihood of shoplifters being caught. Similarly, replacing coin-operated gas meters with pre-payment cards reduces the burglar's rewards.
what is situational crime sociological approach
underlying the approach is an ‘opportunity’ or rational choice theory of crime, veiwing criminals as acting rationally, weighing up the costs and benefits of a crime oppotunity before deciding whether to commit
this contrats with theories of crime that stress ‘root causes’ such as criminal’s early socioloisation or capitalist exploitation. to deal with crime they believe that there needs to be a change or socialisation or a revolution.
Stephen Lyng's study of 'edgework' follows the same theme, suggesting that some criminals will push the boundaries to the extreme in order to generate the biggest thrills, which can often lead to dangerous circumstances.
what example does marcus felson give
gives an example of situationl crime prevention strategy. the port authroity bus terminal in New York city was poorly desgined and provided opportunitie for deviant conduct. for example the toilets were a setting for luggage thefts, rough sleeping, drug dealing and sexual activity. re shaping the pysical envionmental to ‘design crime out’ greatly reduced such acitivity. for example, large sinks in which homless people bathed in were replaced by small hand basins.
what is a criticism of situational crime prevention
they do not reduce crime. they simply displace it. after all, if criminals ae acting rationally presumably they will respond to target hardng simply by moving to where targets are softer.
for example, Charkin et al found that a crackdown on subway robberies in New York city merely displaced them to the strets.
what forms can dispalcement take
spatial - moving elsewhere to commit a crime
temporal - committing crime at a different time
target - choosing a different victim
tacitcal - using a different method
functional - committing a different type of crime
what is the most successful example of situational measurs
it is not on crime but about suicide. in the early 1960s, half of all suicides in Britain were the result of gassing. Britain's gas supply came from highly toxic coal gas. From the 1960s, coal gas was gradually replaced by less toxic natural gas, and by 1997 suicides from gassing had fallen to near zero.
interestingly, the ovverall sucide rate declined and therefore, not just because of decline in suicide by gassing, but suicide overall, thus the method of suicide was not simply displaced to another method.
ciriticism of situaitonal crime control
It leads to crime displacement.
Ignores factors such as inequality and deprivation as causes of crime (Garland 2001).
Ignores the role of emotion and thrill as a cause of crime (Lyng 1990)
Only tackles opportunistic street crime – won’t work for DV, white collar crime, or state crime.
It creates divided ‘Fortress cities’ (Bauman).
what is envionmentla crime prevention based on
based on James Q Wilson and George Kelling’s article ‘Broken Windows’. the phrase stands for all the various signs of disorder and lack of concern for others that are found in some neighbourhoods. these include: graffiti, begging, dog fouling, littering, vandelism.
they argue that leavng broken windows unrepaired, tolerating aggressive begging etc sends out a signal that no one cares. in these neighbourhoods there is an absence of both formal social control (the police) and informal control (the community). The police are only concerned with serious crime and turn a blind eye to petty nuisance behaviour, while respectable members of the community feel intimidated and powerless. Without remedial action, the situation deteriorates, tipping the neighbourhood into a spiral of decline. Respectable people move out (if they can) and the area becomes a magnet for deviants.
kelling’s key idea about disorder and the absence of controls lead to crie what is their solution
their solution s to crack down on any disorder, using a twofolkd strategy. first, an enviornmental improvement strategy: any broken windows must be replced immediatly, abondedned cars toweed without delay- otherwise more will follow.
secondly, the police must adopt a zero tolernace policing strategy, instead of merely reacting to crime, they must pracitvely tacjle even the lsightest sign of disorder, even if not criminal- this will halt neighbourhood decline and prevent serous crime from taking place
proof that zero policing works
Kelling was an advisor to the police in New York city. they omplemented clean car programe on the subway in which cars were taken out of service immeditatly if they had frafifit on them, retuning them oncr clean. as a result, graffiti was removed from the subway. other successfulp progrmmes to tackle fare dodging, drug dealing and begging followed.
Later, the same approach was extended to the citys police precincts. For example, a crackdown on 'squeegee merchants' discovered that many had outstanding warrants for violent and property crimes. Between 1993 and 1996, there was a significant fall in crime in the city, includinga 50% drop in the homicide rate - from 1,927 to 986.
however, eval of zero toleranc policing in New York city reducing crime due to zero tolernace
However, it is not clear how far zero tolerance was the cause of the improvements:
The NYPD benefited from 7,000 extra officers.
There was a general decline in the crime rate in majorS. cities at the time - including ones where police did not adopt a zero tolerance policy.
The early 1990s had seen a major recession and high unemployment, but from 1994 many new jobs were being created.
There was a decline in the availability of crack cocane.
While deaths from homicides fell sharply, attempted homicides remained high. It has been suggested that. fall in the murder rate owed more to improved medica emergency services than policing.
criticism f envionemtnal crime prevention
It is more expensive than situational crime prevention – it takes a lot of police to patrol an area and clamp down on anti-social behaviour.
Reiner (2015) argues that the police would be better deployed focusing on more serious crime hot spots rather than clamping down on minor forms of anti-social behaviour.
From an Interactionist perspective, giving more power to the police will just lead to more labelling and more criminal careers.
what is social and community prevention
place the emphasis firmly on the potential offender and thier social context. the aim is to remove the conditions that predispose individuals to crime in the first place. theya re longer term strategies since they attempt to tackle the root causes of offending, ather than simply emoving th opportunities for crime. they look to poverty, unemployment and poor housing and try to address these issus. for example, policieis to promote full employment are likely to reduce crime as a side effect.
what is the bestknown community programme aimed to reuce criminality
Perry pre-school project for disadvantaged Black children in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
An experimental group of 3-4 year olds was offered a two-year intellectual enrichment programme, during which time the children also received weekly home visits.
A longitudinal study followed the children's subsequent progress. It showed striking differences with a control group who had not undergone the programme. By age 40, they had significantly fewer lifetime arrests for violent crime, property crime and drugs, while more had graduated from high school and were in employment. It was calculated that for every dollar spent on the programme, $17 were saved on welfare, prison and other costs.
explain two differences bteween situational and enviornmental crime control
situational crime control is more local and targeted for example fixing shutters onto shops to make it harder to break into at night. wheras, envionemtnal crime prevention is more regional and focuses on a wider ‘problem area’ which has a high street crime rate- for example Wilson and Kelling’s zero policy policing was implemented in the whole of New York city
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outline two ways in which situation crime prevention may reduce the incidence of crime in an area
target hardening measures such as locking doors and winsoews increase the effort a burger needs to make and also for examle implementing CCTV or secutiy guards increases the lillehood of shoplifters being caught. thus, the effort and risk associated with committing crime is heightened, and thus crime is pevented.
they reduce the rewards of crim, for example replacing coin operated gas meters iwth pre payment cards reduces the burger’s reward
outline two rasosn why situational crime prevention strategies may not be effective in reducing crime
chariken et al found that a crackdown on subway robberies in New York merely displacedcrime to the streets.
spatial- a criminal commits a crime elsewhere
temporal- an offendor commits their offence at different time- eg time of day, days in the week thus for example they might be aware at what time and hwen there are police patrol. even more, if tempral based crime prevention acitivities are targeted at the youth there might be less police patrols during school time and there might be an increase in police patrol after school- thus the criminal becomes aware and is tactical at what time to commit.
another way of attempting to control people’s behaviour and prevent crime is by means of surveillance, how is surveillance defined
the monitoring of public behaviour for the purposes of population or crime control. it therefore involves observing people’s behaviour to gather data abotu it and typically using the data to regulate, manage or ‘correct’ their behaviour
what form does surveillance take the form of
in the 14th centry sureillance took the form of nominating an individual to monitor and record the spread of the plague
however, in late modern society, surveillance takes the form of CCTV cameras, biometric scanning, automated number plate recognition, electronic tagging and databases the collect information about individuals and groups.
what does foucault distinguish between two different types of punishment
soveign power was tupical before 19th cent, when the monach had complete control and power over people. control was asserted by branding, disfiguring indiivusuals, amputatons- these punihsments were brutal and an emotional spectacle
disciplinary power became dominant after 19th cent and is a form of control throuhg a system of discipline that seeks to govern not just the odies of individuals but their mind. carried out through surveillance.
why did discilinary power become dominant way of infliciting control
some argue that soiveign power disppeared as a system of control because western society became more civilised or humane. however foucault argues thta discip;inary power became dominant becasue surveillance is more effeicient way of establishing control and contorlling people
hwo does daoucault illusyate discipnary power
evaluate sociological explanations of the role of punishment and reduction of crime - 30 m
outline two ways in which crime and heaviour are controlled via surveillance
he illustrates disciplinary power with the panopticon, this was a design for a prison in which each prisoner int hei rown cell is visible to the guards from the central watchamaker, but the gaurds are not visible to the pironser. therefore the prisoner does not know when they are being watched as a result they have to act on their best beahviour in fear that they are being watched. as a result surveillance turns into self surveillance and discipline becomes self discipline
what does disicplinary power involve
intneseviley montioring the individual with a view that it will rehabiilitate them wheras sorveign power simply sought to crush or violent repress offenders. thus, foucault sees experts as having an important role to play in appluing their specialise knowledge to correcting the indidivudlas deviant behaviour.
in london how many times on average is aperson caught on cctv per day
300 times
what does faucoult argue that prisons are only one example of an insittution that employs disciplinary power
from the 19th cent pirons are just one example of institutions that use disciplinary power to induce conformitiving through self surveillance, they are also used in ayslums, barracks, factories, workhouses and schools
furthermore, non bruson based social control practices such as community service orders form a ‘carceral arhcipelago’- a series of prson islands where instiutions spead into each other and wider society- wherby professionals such as teachers, social workers and psychiatrists exercise surveillance over the population. thus he concludes that disciplinary power has dispersed throughout society, penentrating every social institution. thus the system of panopticon is not only used in prison but throughout society
Outline two ways in which crime and behaviour are controlled via surveillance.
foucault demonstrates the disciplinary power of the panoptican, which is a design used in prisons where in the centre there is a guard who is able to watch prionsers, however the prsoner does not know hwen they are being watched and therefore acts on their best behaviour of fer that they are being watched. simairly, in post modern society CCTV cameras, biometric scanning, automated number plate recognition etc are used as surveillance and thus people are not aware when they are beign watched and thus surveillance turns into self surveillance and discipline becomes self discipline.
matieson argues that whilst the panopitcan allows the few to monitor the many, today the media enables the many to see the few. in late modernity centralised surveillance is used which he labels as ‘synopticon’ where everubody watches everybody. for example Thompson argues that powerful groups such as politicians fear the media’s surveillance of them and fear that they may uncover information about them that tarnishes their image and respect, thus this acts as a form of social control over their activities
Outline three reasons why increasing surveillance in society may not be effective in reducing crime and disorder.
goffman shows that some inmates of prisons and mental hospitals are able to resisit control
foucault overestimates the power of surveillance as functioning for rehabilitation, this is because prisoners may simply resit commiting crime and deviance in prison because of fear that they are being watched not becasue they have rehabilitated into a better person
norris’ review of dozens of studies worldwide found that although CCTV reduced crimes in car parks it had little effect on other crime and may even displace it
However, Gill and Loveday (2003) found that few robbers, burglars, shoplifters or fraudsters were put off by CCTV.
the real function of CCTV may be ideological, falsely reassuring the public about their security, even though it makes little difference to their risk of victimisation.
Outline three of the possible purposes of punishment.
detterence
punishing the individual discourages them from future offending. ‘making an example’ of them may also serve as a detterent to the public at large, this is supported by Durkheim who stated that crime functions as boundary maintainence, where society is united in condemnation against the criminal which reinforces their individual commitment ot society and reinforces social solidarity, this is supported by COhen who argues that the media play a role in the ‘dramatisation of evil’, creating folk devils.
deterrence policies nclude Maragaret Thatcher’s conservative fovernment’s ‘short, sharp shock’ regime in uoung offenders institutions in the 1980s.
rehabilitation
punishment can reform or change offendors so they no longer offend. policies inlude providing education, anger management courses for violent offenders and training prisoners so that when they leave they are able to ‘earn an honest living’.
incapacitation
punishment is used to remove the offernders ability to offend again. for example, in saudia arabia cutting off the hands is used in theft, other countries commit chemical castrations in russia and poland are used agaisnt sexual offences agaisnt children and also death penalty, which was previously executions took place for example in the UK
Outline three ways in which punishments for crime can be functional for Society.
analyse two functions of punishment
analyse two reasons why punishments might not be effective in reducing crime
criticisms that CCTV stop crime
Norris (2012) review of dozens of studies worldwide found that while CCTV reduced crimes in car parks, it had little or no effect on other crime, and may even cause displacement.
The case for CCTV assumes that criminals know they are being watched and care enough to be deterred by this. However, Gill and Loveday (2003) found that few robbers, burglars, shoplifters or fraudsters were put off by CCTV.
the real function of CCTV may be ideological, falsely reassuring the public about their security, even though it makes little difference to their risk of victimisation.
feminist criticism of CCTV
Koskla ciriticses CCTV as an extension of the amle gaxe, while it renders more visible to voyerism of the male camerica operator it does nto make them more secure.
criticism of foucault
Goffman shows that some inmates of prisons and mental hospitals are able to resit controls.
foucult also over estimates the power of surveillance to change behaviour. some inmates practice self discipline becasue they do not know when they are being monitored, thus they have not been rehabilitated they have simply become tactical
another form of panoptican, methieson and thompson
Thomas Mathiesen (1997) argues that Foucault's account of surveillance only tells half the story when applied to today's society. In Mathiesen's view, while the Panopticon allows the few to monitor the many, today the media also enable the many to see the few. In late modernity, he argues, there is an increase in the top-down, centralised surveillance that foucault discusses, but also in surveillance from below. Mathiesen calls this the 'Synopticon' - where everybody watches everybody.
For example, Thompson (2000) argues that powerful groups such as politicians fear the media's surveillance of them may uncover damaging information about them, and this acts as a form of social control over their activities.
another form of synoptic surveillance
another example of synoptic surveillance is where the public monitor each other, as with video cameras mounted on cyce helmets or dashboards to collect evidence in the event of accidents. This may warn other road users that their behaviour s being monitored and result in them exercising self-discipline.
what does mobile phone ownserhip allow for
due to widespread phone ownership, ordinary citiizens are able to ‘control the contorllers’ for example by filming police wrongdoing Mann et al (2003) call this 'souveillance' (from the French sous meaning 'under' or 'below').
evaluate sociological explanations of the role of punishment in the prevention and reduction of crime.
analyse two functions of deviance.
outline two features of positivst victimology
outline two features of critical victimology
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