Sociology Crime and Deviance Crime Prevention

Ways to prevent crime, Unit 4 Sociology a2

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  • Created by: Cookie
  • Created on: 02-06-12 20:32

Situational Crime Prevention

Reducing opportunities for crime:

  • 'Target hardening' measures include locking doors, security guards.
  • Measures may displace crime, moving to different places, times.

However--> this approach does more than displace, e.g. from coal gas to natural gas reduced total suicides.

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Environmental crime pevention

WILSON and KELLING--> 'broken windows' (graffiti, begging) that arnt dealt with send out a signal that no one cares.

The solution: crack down on any disorder through Environmental Crime Prevention (zero tolerance)

Evidence for this approach working--> this has been tried-> only way that worked in New york 1990s was an increase in police and low unemployment.

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Social and Community Crime Prevention

Poverty--> cause of crime. Social policies may have crime prevention role, e.g. full employment policies and welfare dependency.

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Punishment

Deterrence--> preventing future crime from fear of futher punishment.

Rehabilitation--> reforming offenders, e.g. anger management.

Incapacitation--> removing offenders capacity to re-offend, e.g. execution, imprisonment

Retribution--> idea that society is entitled to take revenge for offender having breached moral code.

DURKHEIM--> punishment upholds social solidarity and reinforces shared values by showing outrage at offence. Retributive justice: Traditional society has a strong collective consciousness, so punishment severe. Restitutive Justice: Modern society, extensive interdependence between individuals. Function of justice is to repair damange through compensation.

However: Durkheim is too simplistic, traditional often have restitutive rather than retributive, e.g. paying off blood feud.

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Punishment

Marxism--> punishment is part of repressive state apparatus that defends ruling class property.

Imprisonment is punishment, time is money and offenders pay by doing time.

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Punishment

FOUCAULT-->birth of the prison

Theres discipline and punishment.

Soverign power: punishment as a visible spectacle (public execution)

Disciplinary power: govern not just the body, but also the mind through surveillance. Foucault uses the panopticon to illustrate this. Panoptican: prisoner cells visible to guards, so they behave as they are and dont know they are being watched.

Other institutions like mental assylums follow this and disciplinary power has infiltrated society.

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Trends in punishment

Changing role of prisons--> Used to have execution. Only recently imprisonment has become a form of punishment, but as most prisoners re-offend, it may just be a way of making bad people worse.

Garland argues: crime control has become more politicised. 'Tough on crime' policies (e.g. greater use of prison) appeal to the public, however are ineffective.

Now: over 3% of adult population across USA and UK have some form of judical restriction on their liberty.

Transcarceration--> moving people between different prison-like institutions.

For example: Bought up in care home, then young offenders institution, then prison.This links to New rights fear that underclass poses a threat toward social stability.

Alternatives to prison--> community service, curfews.Cohen: cast the net of control over more people. Rather than diverting young people away from CJS, community controls may divert into it.

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