Crime And Deviance : Control, Punishment And Victims Flashcards
What are the 3 types of crime prevention and control
- Right realists : situational crime prevention - reducing opportunities for crime, making it harder to commit crime
- Right realists : environmental crime prevention - ‘broken windows’ theory, improving run down areas, zero tolerance
- Left realists : social and community crime prevention - tackling the root causes of crime, long term solutions
Right realism - increased social control
Link to Hirschi’s control theory - individuals are encouraged to choose conformity over crime when they are strongly integrated into their communities
= Right realists - we should promote conformity and isolate deviant individuals
Policies include:
- parental responsibility (2003 parenting order)
- informal surveillance - neighbourhood watch
- cracking down on anti social behaviour
- zero tolerance policy
- heavier policing and harsher punishment
Situational crime prevention (SCP)
Clarke - SCP involves reducing opportunities for crime
= increasing risk, reducing reward
= managing environment of crime
Criminals make rational choices (rational choice theory) - if rewards are reduced people won’t commit crime
Clarke - most theories offer unrealistic solutions to crime, we must focus on the immediate crime situation
Most crime is opportunistic, so we need to reduce the opportunities
AO2 for SCP
The Port Authority Bus Terminal
Felson
The Port Suthority Bus Terminal in NY was poorly designed and provided opportunities for deviance
= luggage thefts, rough sleeping, drug dealing
Reshaping the physical environment reduced crime - EG replaced large sinks with small basins to prevent vagrants from bathing there
Criticism of SCP - displacement
SCP doesn’t reduce crime, it displaces it - criminals will respond to target hardening by moving to where targets are softer
EG Chaiken - found that a crackdown on subway robberies in NY just displaced them to the streets above
Evaluation of SCP
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths:
It works to some extent in reducing certain kinds of crime
EG Bowers et al : targeted policing in high crime areas found SCP led to neighbouring districts also seeing reductions in crime
Weaknesses:
Marxists - ignores WCC, corporate and state crime, which are more costly and harmful
Assumes criminals make rational calculations - seems unlikely given that many crimes of violence are committed under the influence
Left realists + Marxists - ignores root causes of crime like poverty. Makes it hard to develop long term solutions for crime reduction
Poorer areas will still have crime, whilst wealthier ones will be more protected = creates increased inequality
Environmental crime prevention (ECP) - right realism
What is it? What are the solutions?
Wilson - broken windows theory
Tolerating graffiti and vandalism signalises than no one cares
In such neighbourhoods, there is an absence of social control
= without action, the area becomes a magnet for deviants
Absence of control LEADS TO crime
Solutions:
1. Environmental improvement strategy - any broken window must be repaired immediately, any graffiti cleaned
2. Police must adopt a zero tolerance policing strategy - actively tackling any sign of disorder, even if it’s not criminal (this prevents serious crime from occurring)
Evidence for ECP AO2
‘Clean Car Program’ in NY - subway trains out of service if vandalised, then returning once clean
NY zero tolerance 1990s - tackling most minor offences
= 73% fall in homicides
= 35% fall in overall crime
However, at the same time of zero tolerance
- there was a general decline in crime in major US cities even where zero tolerance wasn’t adopted
Evaluation of ECP
- Mx - ignores WCC, corporate and state crime, which are more costly and harmful
- labelling theorists - zero tolerance can have long term negative consequences for people who have committed minor offences. Police will label potential offenders (leads to SFP, master status) EG London riots 2011
- left realists - doesn’t address wider causes of crime
- PM Lyng and Katza - do offenders make rational choices ? It’s the thrill that makes people commit crime
Left realists : Social community and crime prevention
Recognise offenders and victims are from disadvantaged communities
= socially excluded
We should tackle deprivation as this generate frustration which leads to crime
We must improve POLICING AND CONTROL, and deal with DEEPER STRUCTURAL CAUSES OF CRIME
= long term
Left realist solutions to crime : improving relationship between the police and communities
Kinsey, Lea and Young
Police depend on the public to provide them with information about crime (90%)
Police losing support due to lack of time taken investigating local crime (flow of information dries up) - have to rely on military policing
= THIS alienates communities and weakens relations
Police must deal with local concerns, improve relationships by spending time investigating crime and involving the public in policing policies
Left realist solutions to crime : improving relationship between the police and communities
Lewis et al
Resentment of a perceived lack of respect from the police and the stopping / searching of innocent people was a major factor behind the 2011 London Riots
Left realists : tackling deeper structural causes of crime
Causes of crime are due to the unequal structure of society
= to reduce the cause, we must become more tolerant of diversity, and have major structural change
We must tackle deprivation
Left realists : tackling deeper structural causes of crime
AO2 examples
Parenting support (Sure Start Centres) to help poorer children have head start - risk factors for crime are greatest
Perry Pre School Project - experimental group of 3-4 year olds offered a 2 year intellectual enrichment programme. By age 40, they had much less arrests than those who didn’t undergo the programme (36% v 55% arrested 5 times or more)
Contemporary : Tory cuts to youth services fuelling crime, says Keir Starmer
= cuts were greatest in the most deprived areas (services in the least deprived areas were cut by 60%)
Evaluation of Social and Community Crime Prevention
Strengths and weaknesses
Strength : seeks to tackle the root causes of crime unlike SCP and ECP strategies
Weaknesses:
Deterministic - not everyone living in deprived areas will turn to crime
RR - LR deflect attention away from more practical measures like tighter social control and SCP
Mx - ignores WCC, corporate and state crime which is more costly and harmful
They are being soft on crime - downplaying the role of the offender
