Summary A Southern African Perspective on Fundamental Criminology - Chapter 9 (KRM110)
Sexual crimes (Chapter 8) Summary
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CRIME PREVENTION AND CONTROL
Crime control pg 491
o Crime control refers to the response to crime. Or to the reaction by the police after a crime
was committed. Crime control rest largely on retribution and utilitarianism.
o Retribution is about punishment - ensuring that the offender is punished for their
wrongdoing
o Utilitarianism is an ethical viewpoint in which the happiness of the greatest number of
people need to be considered.
o The idea that individuals should be punished for their wrong doing comes from the Classical
school of criminology. The Classical School of Criminology view humans as rational beings in
that they make a choice to commit crime or to not commit crime. The decision is based on
the whether the act will bring pleasure or pain.
Deterrence
o Crime control is largely the responsibility of the CJS
o The goal of crime control is discouraging crime which is referred to as deterrence (specific
and general).
Specific deterrence
o Specific deterrence is concerned with discouraging individual offenders from further
criminality (recidivism) through punishment.
o Most serve form= imprisonment.
o Removing the offender from society and placing the offender in prison ensures that the
offender cannot commit any further crimes
o Aims to prevent re-offending once released from prison.
o Recidivism: Re-offending once released from prison
Does specific deterrence work?
o The successful implementation of specific deterrence is hampered.
o Research in South Africa indicates a high rate of recidivism
o Reasons for the high rate of reoffending is attributed to rehabilitation efforts going in vain
because of the large prison population, prison violence, drugs, corruption, diseases in prison,
the inhuman prison conditions amongst others.
o Other reasons for individual deterrence being ineffective include the difficulty of individuals
to reintegrate into society after their release.
o Another reason for the high recidivism rate is the housing of hardened criminal with petty
offenders.
, General deterrence
General deterrence is about warning everyone in society of the consequence of committing
a crime
The general deterrence approach is based on the rational choice theory
The theory holds that an individual makes a decision based on the cost and benefit model.
Individuals weight the punishment of committing the crime with the benefit.
Elements for general deterrence
Theoretically, in order for general deterrence to be effective three elements need to be
integrated into the threat of punishment.
Severe, certain and swift
Does general deterrence work?
o There are too many complications with regard to general deterrence
o poor police investigation,
o high levels of corruption,
o delays in the criminal justice proceedings,
o low conviction rate that restrict all three element of general deterrence to work.
o In South Africa it is seen that the certainty of apprehension and punishment is low for crime
such as housebreaking/burglary, robbery, house invasions, cash in transit heists, and sexual
offences.
o Lack of court efficiency include the lack of resources (staff), court delays, lack of evidence
presented by SAPS
Criticisms against the general deterrence approach pg 493
o Individuals are unlikely to weigh legal sanctions against the benefits of their actions because
the general public may not be fully aware of the legal sanctions when committing a crime.
o Deterrence sees incapacitation as the final result of a crime without consideration to how
and why the crime was committed
Crime prevention 495
o Crime prevention which is defined as strategies and measures that seek to reduce the risk of
crime occurring, and their potential harmful effects on individuals and society, including fear
of crime, by intervening to influence their multiple causes
o Crime prevention is an approach that seeks to understand the causes of crime which leads
to one becoming better equipped to develop proactive strategies that can anticipate where
crime might occur.
o Been proactive means causing a change rather than reacting to a problem.
o Crime prevention approaches are evidence based which means that the approaches are
based on research evidence and not opinion based.
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