control punishment and victims

What are the main methods sociologists identify to control criminal behaviour?

• Situational crime prevention – reducing opportunities for crime in specific situations

• Environmental crime prevention – designing spaces to deter crime

• Surveillance – monitoring and punishing criminals

What is positive victimology?

Focuses on victim proneness or precipitation, i.e., factors in the victim that may contribute to their victimisation.

What is critical victimology?

Emphasises structural factors, such as poverty and inequality, that contribute to victimisation, highlighting societal responsibility

What is positive victimology, according to Miers?

Some individuals or groups are more likely to be victims due to factors like lack of resources and power (e.g., the homeless).

How can victims provoke their own victimisation in positive victimology?

• Middle-class victims may display wealth, encouraging theft

• Working-class victims may provoke threats, leading to violent crime

What is critical victimology, according to Mawby & Walklate?

Victimisation is a form of structural powerlessness; patriarchy and poverty place powerless groups (e.g., women, poor) at greater risk.

What do Tombs & Whyte argue about the social construction of victims?

The state labels some people as victims but withholds it from others, concealing the true extent and causes of victimisation and hiding crimes of the powerful.

What is situational crime prevention (SCP) according to Clarke?

A pre-emptive approach that focuses on reducing opportunities for crime rather than addressing social or institutional causes.

What is crime displacement?

The idea that crime may move elsewhere when opportunities are restricted through SCP.

What is spatial displacement?

Crime moves to a different location (e.g., if one house is secure, criminals target another).

What is temporal displacement?

Crime occurs at a different time (e.g., doors unlocked during the day, not night).

What is target displacement?

Criminals choose a different target if the original target is protected (e.g., kidnapping a different child).

What is tactical displacement?

Criminals use a different method when prevention limits their usual tactics (e.g., limiting paracetamol reduces suicide attempts).

What is functional displacement?

Criminals commit a different type of crime if their intended crime is prevented.

What is the Broken Windows thesis by Wilson & Kelling?

Disorderly neighbourhoods lacking formal (police) and informal (community) control encourage crime. Police often ignore minor nuisance behaviours, focusing only on serious crimes.

What is zero-tolerance policing in environmental crime prevention?

Police crack down on all forms of disorder and repair signs of neglect (e.g., graffiti) to prevent more serious crime.

What is social and community crime prevention?

Focuses on potential offenders and their social context, rather than just policing, aiming to reduce criminality through social interventions.

What was the Perry Preschool Project?

A two-year intellectual enrichment program for disadvantaged young children, which showed by age 40:

• Fewer lifetime arrests

• Higher employment rates

• Significant improvement compared to a control group

What is surveillance in the context of crime control?

The monitoring of public behaviour to prevent or detect crime, using tools like CCTV, biometric scanning, and information databases.

What is sovereign power, according to Foucault?

Power where the monarch has absolute control over people and their bodies, enforced through visible, brutal punishment (e.g., public executions).

What is disciplinary power, according to Foucault?

A system of governing the mind, soul, and body through surveillance and discipline, dominant from the 19th century.

What is the reduction justification of punishment?

Punishment is used to prevent future crime.

What is deterrence in punishment?

Punishing an individual discourages them from offending again.

What is rehabilitation in punishment?

Punishment aims to reform or change offenders, e.g., through education or anger management courses, so they stop offending.

What is retribution in punishment?

The idea that offenders deserve to be punished, and society is entitled to take revenge for their crimes.