Victims, Prevention, Punishment Flashcards
(17 cards)
Christie
Belived that a victim is a social construct, society is more willing to see certain people as victims.
E.g and old man who’s walking stick has been stolen.
Miers
States ‘positive victimology’ is interest in how some people are more likely to become victims than others either because of their actions of their characteristics.
(Feminist) Heidensohn
Crime by men against women is likely to go unreported. Law is biased against women.
Tombs and Whyte
Talk about ‘critical victimology’ which is groups who are most likely to be oppressed are most likely to be victims.
They found that those power can fail to label sufferers as victims. Fail to acknowledge the people they are victimising and ultimately blame the victim.
Felson
Talks about an example of Situational crime prevention working…
Studied a bus terminal in NYC which was a haven for deviance and anti social behaviour such as drug use. By reshaping the environment the deviant activity was reduced.
Chaiken et al (Criticism)
Criticises situational crime prevention.
Argues it doesn’t always reduce crime but rather moves the crime elsewhere, this is called displacement.
Wilson and Kelling
Put forward the zero tolerance approach. This is when anti social behaviour is tackled swiftly and strictly. They link this with the right realist idea about ‘environmental crime prevention’
(Case study) Clean Car Programme
Introduced in NYC. Cars which were dirty and vandalised were removed from the environment to make the area look nicer and less run down.
Reiner (Criticism)
Argues that the police would be more valuable focusing on more serious crime rather than trying to prevent minor instances of anti social behaviour.
(Case study) Perry Pre-School experiment
Experiment built for disadvantaged black children in Michigan. Offered them a two year enrichment programme which they then compared with the people who didn’t participate in the programme 40 years later.
Found that the participants had been to jail less and lived a more crime free life.
Foucault
Agued that prisons exert their disciplinary power by using surveillance. If prisoners know they are being watched they will most likely behave.
The Panopticon was a central observation tower which showed the power of self surveillance in a prison environment.
Garland
Argued that the zero tolerance attitudes and policies that crack down on crime have led to mass incarceration. Number of the prison population has drastically increased over time.
(Feminist) Stanko
Argue that the fear of crime is used to control women. Stanko suggests women have to restrict their behaviour by not being to provocative.
(Theory) Marxism
1-Social & Community Prevention
Marxist criticise this way of preventing crime as they do not tackle the underlying structural inequalities in the capitalist system.
2-Punishment
Punishment serves the needs of capitalism. Police also enforce social control in poorer areas whilst neglect the richer areas allowing them to go unchallenged.
(Theory) Functionalists
1-Punishment
Punishment is needed to keep society going. If crime goes unpunished society would collapse.
(Theory) Postmodernist
See surveillance as controversial and an invasion of privacy. Allows the state to control us.
(Functionalist) Durkheim
Durkheim talks about punishment from a functionalist perspective and states that public punishment was good for society. It unites people together in condemning a criminal and improves social solidarity.
In other words he belived public hanging would be beneficial for society.
