Reducing crime and deviance

Question 1

What are the 2 approaches to reducing crime and deviance?

Reducing

Answer 1

• Left wing= tackle poverty
• Right wing= fight crime

Question 2

How do the left wing intend to tackle poverty?

Reducing

Answer 2

• Increase benefits
• Improve education
• Offer retraining schemes to the unemployed
• Improve facilities (playgrounds, youth clubs, parks, libraries)

Question 3

How do the right wing intend to fight crime?

Reducing

Answer 3

• More police officers
• Install CCTV
• Better street lighting
• Improve security
• Equipping shops with radios

Question 4

How do left-wing theories tackle the social causes of crime?

Preventing

Answer 4

• Reduce income inequality (taxation, benefits)
• Raise living standards (higher quality social housing, affordable housing)
• Reduce unemployment (create jobs, encourage investment)
• Improve education and training (apprenticeships, retrain older people)

Question 5

What does Clarke say about right wing prevention of crime?

Preventing

Answer 5

• Criminality= conscious choice
• Factors affecting criminality:
• Criminal opporutnities available
• Likelihood of getting caught
• Consequences of getting caught

Question 6

What does right wing crime prevention focus on?

Preventing

Answer 6

• Making crime more diffcult to commit, and making capture/punishment more likely

Question 7

What is situational crime prevention?

Preventing (right wing)

Answer 7

• Making a specific crime more difficult to commit
• Clarke- opportunity theory (crime is a conscious choice, criminal opportunities available and consequences of being caught are significant factors affecting criminality)
• Target hardening- makes it difficult to commit crime (e.g: steering locks)

Question 8

What are some examples of situational crime prevention?

Preventing (right wing)

Answer 8

• Increased surveillance- CCTV
• Reducing anonymity- ID checks when purchasing age-restricted items (knives)
• Deflecting offenders- public spaces designed, so reduction in loitering areas
• Removing means to commit crime- anti-climb paint/spikes on fences
• Target hardening- anti-theft devices

Question 9

What examples of situational crime prevention does Clarke provide?

Preventing (right wing)

Answer 9

• Theft from telephone boxes was eliminted when aluminium coin boxes were replaced with steel ones- harder to break into
• Car theft in Germany dramatically reduced when steering wheel locks were made compulsory in 1963

Question 10

What is environmental crime prevention?

Preventing (right wing)

Answer 10

• Wider measures reducing deviant behaviour, focusing on changing public environment

Question 11

What are some examples of environmental crime prevention?

Preventing (right wing)

Answer 11

• Broken windows/zero tolerance policing- Wilson and Kelling- crack down on minor offences to create a culture of lawfulness and prevent more serious crime
• Rapid repair of vandalism- graffati/ broken windows quickly fixed to prevent areas looking neglected
• Urban design improvements- ‘defensible space’ (Newman) promotes well-lit pathways, clear sightlines, secure entryways
• Community engagement programmes- neighbourhood watch
• Improve public spaces- increase visability

Question 12

What is an example of environmental crime prevention provided by Painter and Farrington?

Preventing (right wing)

Answer 12

• Improved street lighting
• Found that crime decreased by 43% in an area where street lighting was improved

Question 13

What did Tony Blair say in 1993 on crime?

Punishment

Answer 13

• ‘We will be tough on crime, and tough on the cause of crime’
• Blair= labour, left wing- tackle poverty
• Fight crime- appeal to right wing

Question 14

What is retribution?

Punishment (right wing)

Answer 14

• Makes the offender pay/suffer
• Seen as punitive/form of revenge

Question 15

What is rehabilitation?

Punishment (left wing)

Answer 15

• Aim to reintegrate offender back into society, reforming them, addressing causes of offending

Question 16

What did Braithwaite say about the 2 types of shaming through punishment?

Punishment

Answer 16

• Disintegrative shaming (right)= prevelant in traditional retributive justice. Offender is labelled and stigmatised, affecting their self-concept (Becker- master status)- leads to increased offending
• Reintegrative shaming (left)= focus on behaviour, not offender, encourage remose- face up to consequences. Make amends, avoid making same mistakes again

Question 17

What is the left-wing approach to punishment?

Punishment

Answer 17

• Prevent reoffending by showing error of ways- impact of crime on victim and society
• E.g: community service, treatment programmes, restorative justice

Question 18

What is restorative justice?

Punishment (left)

Answer 18

• Braithwaite= ‘crime hurts, justice should heal’
• Fosters dialogue between victim and perpetrator
• Offender takes responsibility
• Victim and offender= central to the process
• High rate of victim satisfication, and low reoffending rates

Question 19

What are some examples of left wing punishment in the real world?

Punishment

Answer 19

• US example= Red Hook communitu justice court transformed crime rates in Brooklyn- focus on tackling issues at source, i.e. community mediation sessions
• UK example= Surrey- youth crime reffered to by a panel of police and youth support workers- gave caution/ youth restorative intervention (YRI)

Question 20

What is the right wing approach to punishment?

Punishment

Answer 20

• Favour harsh, punitive sentences
• Punishment must fit the crime
• Acts as deterrence, retribution, and public denunciation- focus on shaming and sigmatisation of behaviour (Functionalist public degredation ceremonies- reinforce boundaries)

Question 21

What did Murray say about punishment?

Punishment (right)

Answer 21

• Prison works as a force of retributive justice
• Three strikes and your’re out policy= life imprisonment with no parole for 3rd offence- leads to quadrupling of prison population

Question 22

What are the right-wing ideas on social control?

Control (right)

Answer 22

• Increased surveillance
• Target hardening
• Support direct policing and state interventions into community/family life
• Increased visibility= more ‘bobbies on the beat’

Question 23

What did Wilson and Kelling say about control?

Control (right)

Answer 23

• See the role of the police as one or order maintenance
• E.g: increase foot patrols

Question 24

What did Chief inspecter of constabulary Tom Winsor say about control?

Control (right)

Answer 24

• ‘Police should focus on preventing crime, rather than catching criminals’
• Targets possible offenders and crime hotspots, which reduces crime and saves money

Question 25

What is zero tolerance policing? | Control (right)

Answer 25

- Agressive policing of minor/anti-social crime to 'clean up the streets' (broken windows theory) - Re-emphasises shared norms, values, boundaries - Reduces more serious crime as social control is increased - NYPD- **Zimring**- between 1990-2009, the homocide rate fell by 82% - Used alonsgide situational crime prevention - E.g: Southport riots

Question 26

What are the right wing military tactics to control society? | Control (right)

Answer 26

- Kettling (confinement by police) - Baton charges, water canons, plastic bullets

Question 27

What does **Murray** say about the welfare state? | Control (right)

Answer 27

- Over-generous, benefits system, encourages fecklessness, prevents families and individuals from taking responsibility for their actions - Argues benefits should be cut - 'If you can't afford to bring up your children, they should be adopted' - Stigmatisation is effective, as the community sanction behaviour rather than tolerating it

Question 28

What are the left-wing ideas on social control? | Control (left)

Answer 28

- Focus on relationships between the police, the criminal justice system, and the community

Question 29

What are the left wing ideas on policing? | Control (left)

Answer 29

- **Lea** and **Young** challenge current policing as public lack confidence in police as they see them as prejudiced - Stems from a drift from consensual to conflict policing - Military policing leads to less co-operation with the police- leads to more military-style tactics - **Lea** and **Young**- relationship between police and community needs to be improved by minimal policing

Question 30

What are the left wing ideas on multi-agency working? | Control (left)

Answer 30

- Promotion of co-operation between agencies - Agents of control can improve the moral context in which crime is committed - **Lea** and **Young**- argue for a more co-ordinated approach, including communication regarding individuals and families 'at risk' of offending/ victimisation- early intervention

Question 31

Evaluation of right wing policies

Answer 31

- Do not address underlying causes of crime (**Simon**- 'changing people' is difficult and expensive) - Any apparent crime reduction may be a form of displacement (as criminal's behaviour has not been addressed, it will be displaced elsewhere) - Targets the innocent too (**Hudson**) - Too harsh (little evidence to support them acting as a deterrant)

Question 32

Evaluation of left wing policies

Answer 32

- Long term prevention is unrealistic and ineffective in practice (**Murray**- USA attempted such in 1960/70s= notorious failures) - Restorative justice relies on co- operation of all parties - Too soft (there is public support for more custodial sentences and a retributive approach) - Challenges to community policing (**Gilroy**- simplistic, under-estimate deliberate racist strategies)