CONTROL, PUNISHMENT AND VICTIMS
CRIME PREVENTION AND CONTROL
Situational crime prevention -> Clarke: reduces crime, no attempt at improving soci-
ety, just reduces oppurtunity for crime. Three features of situational crime prevention
- they are directed at specific crimes
- Involve managing or altering immediate environment of crime
- Aim to increase effort and risks of committing crime and reducing rewards
-> e.g locking doors make it more difficult for burglars
- it acts upon rational choice theory, criminals weigh up options/costs before commit-
ting crime
-> clarke believes structural theories offer no realistic solutions for crime prevention,
we should focus on the immediate crime and reducing its opportunity
Displacement -> criticism is that it doesn't actually reduce crime but displace it:
• Spacial: moving elsewhere to commit crime
• Temporal: committing it at a different time
• Tactical: using a different method
• Target: choosing different victim
• Functional: committing different type of crime
However, the example of suicide goes against this, people use to gas themselves as
oven gas=toxic, then oven gasses weren’t, so suicide rate decreased as it wasn't ac-
cessible
Evaluation - displacement is most common outcome of situational crime prevention
> ignores white collar crime, corporate crime and state crime = more costly and
harmful
> crimes of violence and drug use is not rational like rational choice theory claims
Ignores root causes of crime, poverty and/or poor socialisation
Environmental crime prevention -> Wilson and Kelling: broken windows (= no one
cares abt area)
-> area becomes magnet for deviants because community and police don't care what
they do
Zero Tolerance policy -> twofold approach, fix environmental damage immediately
and police take zero tolerance approach to crimes
Evidence -> New York, e.g graffiti removed from subway, 50% homicide rate drop be-
tween 93-96
- however, crime was already decreasing before these measures and attempted
homicide remained high, emergency services just got better (also, correlation be-
tween graffiti and murder?)
Social and community crime -> remove conditions that predispose ppl to commit
crime (povertry, unemployment), tackle the root cause -> general social reforms help
reduce crime, like polices encouraging employment will indirectly reduce crime (ppl
don't have time etc)
SURVEILANCE
-> the monitoring of public behaviour for the purposes of population or crime control
It therefore involves observing people’s behaviour to gather data about it, to regulate,
manage, correct it
Foucault: birth of prison -> uses striking contrast between two different forms of pun-
ishment
• Sovereign power: control assured by inflicting disfiguring, visible punishment on
body (limb amputation, public execution)
• Disciplinary power: seeks to govern not just body but mind - through surveillance
-> the panopticon : illustrates disciplinary power - a design of prison where each cell is
visible to guards, prisoners unaware of when they are being watched, so had to be-
have at all times
CRIME PREVENTION AND CONTROL
Situational crime prevention -> Clarke: reduces crime, no attempt at improving soci-
ety, just reduces oppurtunity for crime. Three features of situational crime prevention
- they are directed at specific crimes
- Involve managing or altering immediate environment of crime
- Aim to increase effort and risks of committing crime and reducing rewards
-> e.g locking doors make it more difficult for burglars
- it acts upon rational choice theory, criminals weigh up options/costs before commit-
ting crime
-> clarke believes structural theories offer no realistic solutions for crime prevention,
we should focus on the immediate crime and reducing its opportunity
Displacement -> criticism is that it doesn't actually reduce crime but displace it:
• Spacial: moving elsewhere to commit crime
• Temporal: committing it at a different time
• Tactical: using a different method
• Target: choosing different victim
• Functional: committing different type of crime
However, the example of suicide goes against this, people use to gas themselves as
oven gas=toxic, then oven gasses weren’t, so suicide rate decreased as it wasn't ac-
cessible
Evaluation - displacement is most common outcome of situational crime prevention
> ignores white collar crime, corporate crime and state crime = more costly and
harmful
> crimes of violence and drug use is not rational like rational choice theory claims
Ignores root causes of crime, poverty and/or poor socialisation
Environmental crime prevention -> Wilson and Kelling: broken windows (= no one
cares abt area)
-> area becomes magnet for deviants because community and police don't care what
they do
Zero Tolerance policy -> twofold approach, fix environmental damage immediately
and police take zero tolerance approach to crimes
Evidence -> New York, e.g graffiti removed from subway, 50% homicide rate drop be-
tween 93-96
- however, crime was already decreasing before these measures and attempted
homicide remained high, emergency services just got better (also, correlation be-
tween graffiti and murder?)
Social and community crime -> remove conditions that predispose ppl to commit
crime (povertry, unemployment), tackle the root cause -> general social reforms help
reduce crime, like polices encouraging employment will indirectly reduce crime (ppl
don't have time etc)
SURVEILANCE
-> the monitoring of public behaviour for the purposes of population or crime control
It therefore involves observing people’s behaviour to gather data about it, to regulate,
manage, correct it
Foucault: birth of prison -> uses striking contrast between two different forms of pun-
ishment
• Sovereign power: control assured by inflicting disfiguring, visible punishment on
body (limb amputation, public execution)
• Disciplinary power: seeks to govern not just body but mind - through surveillance
-> the panopticon : illustrates disciplinary power - a design of prison where each cell is
visible to guards, prisoners unaware of when they are being watched, so had to be-
have at all times
