Fully comprehensive and in-depth lecture notes covering the whole of the second-year Crime, Community Safety, and Crime Prevention module with images and references.
Crime, Community Safety and Crime Prevention – SOC2061
Week 1 – Lecture 28/10
Crime Prevention: Seeks to intervene in the processes which cause criminal events.
Community Safety: A local, multiagency partnership approach to reduce crime and fear, whilst
promoting public safety for communities.
Crime Prevention Practices
Neighbourhood watch – community level
Redesigning products/environments to prevent crime
Grantinghams (1960s)
1. Primary – targeted at whole pop, prevent initial crimes.
2. Secondary – activities (e.g. sports schemes over summer holidays) targeted at specific crime
prone groups/areas
3. Tertiary – systematically targeted at individuals to reduce crime/harm e.g.
tagging/surveillance
These three techniques can either be managed socially (encouraging people to come together) or
situationally (directed at specific forms of crime, manipulate immediate environment and
circumstances);
1. Social Primary – Education, housing and socialisation, public awareness e.g. neighbourhood
watch
2. Social Secondary – Working with those ‘at risk’ of offending e.g. unemployed or gang
involved
3. Social Tertiary – Rehab programmes, aftercare for offenders and diversion schemes
1980s Staged Methodology used for Crime Prevention Work - analysing crime to understand
conditions and process that allows crime.
The Process of Crime Prevention = Analysis – Interventions – Assessment
It helped to implement ‘problem-oriented policing’ developed in the US and also undergoes the
cycle of ‘Scanning – Analysis – Response – Assessment’ (used in all types of interventions).
Uses an ‘evidence-based approach’ which are proven to be effective with consistent results.
Systematic Reviews – attempt to identify all empirical evidence to answer specific research question.
(Just drawing together/summarising wide pool of findings).
1. Formulate question
2. Develop protocol
, 3. Develop search strategy
4. Screening the studies
5. Describe the studies
6. Assess the quality & relevance of studies
7. Synthesis the findings
8. Communicate the findings
A product of ‘Systematic Review’ is the Campbell Collaboration (helps people make well-informed
decisions).
Which crimes should be prioritised in terms of funding to promote crime prevention? What
judgements, ethics and values determine this?
How do we know if they are effective or not?
Lecture 2 – The Historial and Social Context
5/10
1829 – UK’s first state police service principles published (Sir Robert Peel’s Principles of Law
Enforcement) Police exist to PREVENT crime, not just respond to it.
Big emphasis in the last 40 years as crime has been increasing – we need to think more broadly
about conditions which allows crime to occur.
Causes of crime is multifaceted, some situations police don’t have authority to intervene in…
Post WWII – state was providing for social needs so assumed crime would decrease… but it
increased. This led to a disillusionment of ability of the state on controlling crime.
1965 – Cornish Committee on Prevention and Detection of Crime
Stressed role of community in crime prevention
Recommended training police
Suggested crime prevention panels work with the police (alleviated some responsibility)
1970s – 80s - Research highlighted limitations in state unable to control crime (it is a task for the
whole community).
British Home Office 1980s - Development of new concepts and theories to prevent crime including
Rational Choice Theory and Opportunity Theory.
Based off the idea of a reasoning rational offender; increase risks, reduce rewards.
1980 – A staged methodology to understand conditions that make offending possible, funded a
‘safer cities’ programme (£20 mill) and implemented citizen’s neighbourhood watch (largest and
best in the world).
The Morgens Report (1991) ‘Safer Communities, The Delivery of Crime Prevention Through the
Partnership Approach’.
Emphasised need for multi-agencies and local authorities to adopt established objectives,
responsibility and resources for crime prevention (not just the police): multi-agency partnerships is
the ideal.
Resulted in:
, Voluntary community adoption across UK
Crime and Disorder Act 1998 – first inter-agency legislation; HAVE TO act together to
prevent crime (sections 5&6 state local authorities and police to come together to adopt
CDRPs) to produce a 3-year safety strategy published April 1999.
This principle of partnership working “to foster crime prevention and enhance community safety”
is effective.
MORE FUNDING MEANT:
1. Crime Reduction Programme (1999 – 2002) (large scale, interventions based on crime
prevention theories).
2. What Works Centre (2013 – 2018) led by college of policing and academics.
3. CCTV – 1985 first public scale surveillance in Bournemouth for Annual Conference & London
underground.
Slow, confined, locally funded development (in less than 10 cities in 1991).
Growth in 1990s due to more politicised crime and the death of James Bulger = sparked
demand for more CCTV with taking ¾ of the government’s crime prevention budget.
1999 – Labour £153 mill towards CCTV in England & Wales for Crime Reduction Programme
BSIA estimates the UK has between 4-6 million CCTV cameras.
But is it a deterrent?
Campbell Collaboration (2008) Systematic review on CCTV
Minimal deterrent affect
Works well when implemented alongside other measures
BUT implementation issues e.g. control room operation & proper management and
deployment of systems
4. Acknowledged link between crime and anti-social behaviours – hard to define though…
It is a subjective term which can be used interchangeably; depends upon factors such as location,
expectations etc
The Crime & Disorder Act (1998) ‘ASB is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to persons not
in the same household’.
Issues with what is classed as “ASB”…
How and what should be measured?
Who should collect the data?
Collected public perceptions of ASB via surveys
The Broken Windows Thesis (Wilson and Kelling, 1982)
A failure to maintain environment promotes crime and opportunity for low level disorder as well as
increasing fear of crime. *neglected environment suggests its okay to continue neglecting*?
Civil Renewal
Fear
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