Right Realism

Question 1

What do Situational crime prevention(SCP) aim to reduce?

Answer 1

opportunities for crime by increasing the risks or difficulties of committing the crime and by reducing the rewards

Question 2

What is SCP based on and what does SCP include?

Answer 2

Rational choice theory(RCT)
target-hardening measures such as locking cars, employing security guards and re-shaping the environment to ‘design crime out’ of an area

Question 3

Is SCP effective?

Answer 3

problem= displacement
if criminals are rational, they would find a softer target to crack
may commit crime at a different time or place which results in more vulnerable targets being victimised more because other targets have been hardened

Question 4

What is the ‘broken windows’ theory?

Answer 4

a disorderly neighbourhood sends out the message that nobody cares which attracts offenders to commit more crimes

Question 5

What is the twofold policy created by Wilson and Kelling?

Answer 5

an environmental improvement strategy and a zero tolerance policing(ZTP) strategy

Question 6

What is an environmental improvement strategy?

Answer 6

all signs of disorder must be tackled promptly

Question 7

What is ZTP?

Answer 7

taking a tough ‘zero tolerance’ stance towards all crime even the most trivial, police must concentrate on tackling ‘quality of life’ offences such as aggressive begging or vandalism

Question 8

Is ZTP effective?

Answer 8

lead to targeting ethnic minorities due to police racism and to confrontations due to heavy-handed ‘military policing’
ZTP and SCP fail to tackle structural causes of crime such as inequality, focus on low-level street crime ignoring the crimes of the powerful

Question 9

What is Incapacitation?

Answer 9

criminals become incapable of harming the public, jail takes them ‘out of circulation’

Question 10

What is Deterrence?

Answer 10

Criminals think twice before offending when they see tough punishments handed out

Question 11

What is Penal populism?

Answer 11

tough penalities

Question 12

What were the mandatory minimum sentences introduced by the Crime(Sentences) Act?

Answer 12

automatic life sentences for a second serious sexual or violent offence
a minimum of 7 years for a third class A drug trafficking conviction
a minimum of 3 years for a third domestic burglary conviction

Question 13

Is prison effective (Incapacitation)?

Answer 13

‘works’ temporarily, offenders can’t commit crimes against the public while they are in jail however they may offend against fellow inmates and staff

Question 14

If prison effective(Rehabilitation)?

Answer 14

function of prison is to rehabilitate offenders but overcrowding and budget cuts mean many prisoners lack access to education, skills training or treatment programmes that would help them become law-abiding citizens

Question 15

If prison effective (Recidivism)?

Answer 15

imprisonment is ineffective in preventing recidivism, 48% of adults are re-convicted within a year of release