The Theory of Crime Prevention - Essay Example

194247 Situational crime preventions have evolved very recently in the last fifteen years in response to theories like crime reduction theory etc. inan ardent effort to understand crime in a better way, so that tackling could be easier and more effective. 16 techniques were adapted into situational crime prevention and the other four, called ‘removing the excuses for crime’ are comparatively of very recent origin that have been added by Clarke and Homel in 1997. Later in 2003, Cornish and Clarke again extended the numbers to 25, by adding ‘reducing provocations’. The theory of crime prevention works on the principle that a criminal act can happen because of the presentation of an easy target like an unlocked door, or walking on a deserted street late at night. If such a situation did not exist, perhaps the crime would not have taken place, because a safer environment would deter the criminal as he would worry about getting caught. There is also a slight insinuation in this theory that given the opportunity, there could be many more criminals. This implies that the opportunity is the main encourager of a criminal activity and if such opportunity presents itself, even a good citizen could venture to become a criminal. In a way this assumption is at the heart of this theoretical perspective. “Common theoretical perspectives include the routine activity model, crime pattern analysis, and rational choice. The standard methodology is a version of the action research paradigm in which researchers work with practitioners to analyse and define the problem, to identify and try out possible solutions, and evaluate and disseminate the results” http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/crm/crm003.pdf This needs fewer efficacies in principle and more effectiveness in practice because it mainly depends on its practical functioning. It stresses on interventions even before the criminal act takes place. SCP is a primary prevention measure that focuses on reducing crime opportunities than on trying to reform the criminals. It is not an exalted theory that would transform the criminals into better human beings and citizens. It accepts that there are criminals everywhere, and it also accepts the potential criminality of perhaps all the citizens. It is a slightly cynical programme that does not say anything about the possibility of reformation of criminals. It has an articulated theoretical framework, a standard methodology for tackling crime, with a set of opportunity-reducing techniques. It is a clear-cut programme that depends more on practical methods and less on theoretical. It includes ‘Wheels’ scheme to tackle joyriding, crime prevention bus driven around the city checking all the areas, puppet shows on morality, better street lighting, parenting support information, high technology car locks and immobilisers, security patrols, CCTV, improving housing conditions, all-female taxi services, It involves works like making the buildings safer, making streets safer, and asking the police for help in times of danger without waiting for someone to come across and help, using common sense and resourcefulness to stop the criminals, taking the help of the neighbours to look out for crime, and to be vigilant in times of need. It also is connected with the agencies that help in crime reduction, and making it the work of all, not just the police to be on the look out, to be vigilant as far as possible, and report as soon as spotting an unnatural activity, and somehow make the crime reduction work. but it discourages anybody from buying a weapon on the pretext of self-defence, taking independent actions without asking for help in pursuing the criminals and making it more dangerous for self and others in the vicinity. It also discourages people from forcing criminals to take their activities away from that particular area, because it is not crime reduction, but crime shifting. It also discourages people from spending a lot of money in an effort to locate the criminals and reduce the crime in the area. According to the advocates of the theory, it would reduce the opportunities for the criminals to commit crimes, would change their minds by showing the toughness of getting away with the crime, and makes the criminal activities harder, riskier and less rewarding to commit a particular crime. (0019_04a00040_0.pdf_frame=noframe&dpi=3&userID=c253b046@cant.ac.uk_01c0a80a6900501cff477&backcontext) The Environmental theory says: “Crime happens when four things come together: a law, an offender, a victim or target, and a place. Environmental criminologists examine the fourth element -- place (and the time when the crime happened). They are interested in land usage, traffic patterns and street design, and the daily activities and movements of victims and offenders. Environmental criminologists often use maps to look for crime patterns” (Ibid). So, more or less, it can happen anywhere, any time, as soon as the circumstances are conducive. But according to the Rational Choice theory, crime can take place only when the criminal is sure of getting away with it and not otherwise. This works on the assumption that criminal is not a fool, or a risk-taker and he would worry about his own escape route and will weigh it against the possibilities of getting caught by the law. But according to the routine activity theory, crime can take place as any other job, because actually it is the job of the criminal, and it only needs an aggressive offender, a suitably helpless target and the absence of an onlooker who might prevent the crime from happening. According to the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University, “Situational Crime Prevention’ (SCP) is the name given by criminologists to crime prevention strategies that are aimed at reducing the criminal opportunities which arise from the routines of everyday life.” http://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/courses/PTsituationalcrime.html SCP tries to ‘harden’ the potential targets by arming them in a way so that the criminals would get discouraged. Another mode of working is improving the surveillance methods like closed circuit television on roads, shopping malls and even small shops, and almost all the strategic points. The strategy mainly focuses on issues of detection of offences; but it does not focus on ethical or civil rights issue. Its focus is only on the crime prevention and making the society a safer place to live in for normal people and a dangerous place for criminals. Instead of the concept of threat, today sociologists are increasingly using the concept of ‘risk’. “Risk embraces a wide range of problems for human security and survival. Public policies that take into account the whole spectrum of risk have more chance of correctly assessing priorities. Risk-based analysis also helps to underline the fact that risks result partly from a country’s—or an individual’s—own choices”. http://yearbook2007.sipri.org/intro Ulrich Beck invented the concept of risk society in his book Risk Society (1986), in which he argues that modern society produces products, goods, wealth; but also produces the risks. The ancient society produced less and it also produced less risks. The more we produce, the more we are at risk. Our risk production is proportionate to the production of our other commodities. He says, welfare societies redistribute wealth, while risk societies redistribute risks. According to him, modern society is capable of creating ecological risks, sociological and military risks. “Basically the concept of risk society is linked to the fact that risks are no longer limited to natural disasters like earthquake. Naturally disasters are no longer ‘acts of God’, but are often caused by man’s interference with nature’, Anderson (2000, p.407). The risk society is considered to be at war with terror and technology that is growing beyond the limit and is available for the criminals too. Theorists believe that in recent years there had been a steady rise in risk. Even though risk had been ever present, now there are more situations that are benign to risks in the society. In addition, society invents more risks every day in the form of new situations and environments. There are many distinctions of the risk categories and they produce the assumption that natural products are not risk-oriented, but manufactured products are. “For instance, it could be argued that humanity itself, has only come to exist in a self-conscious state through its separation from nature, and hence most of the risks that impact upon us are necessarily mediated in unnatural ways. What’s more, the widely-held assumption that natural products or processes are necessarily better for us than manufactured ones is simply wrong” Nuffield Trust Global Programme, http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Grants/Concept%20of%20Risk.pdf Sociologists have realised that there is more to the crime prevention work other than simple policing and are trying to use a concept of strategy. According to Deborah Lupton, it is necessary “to see risk as having become a central, cultural and political concept by which individuals, social groups and institutions are organised, monitored and regulated” in Rasmussen (2006, p.33). Community crime prevention, lessening the community risk, providing protection to children and elderly, tackling roots of crime, victim-oriented prevention, primary, secondary, tertiary prevention all can reduce the possibilities of committing crime due to presented risk. Structural approach of conflict, opportunity and motivation need SCP to tackle them and in a way, SCP and risk society need each other. While risk society provides criminal opportunities, strategic thinking, linking theory and practice, communication and partnership working, knowing more about crime, motivation and prevention, reducing risk of occurrence and intervening directly in the event and their causes become the work of SCP to prevent and reduce such opportunities. They are necessary to one another to contain the risk and loss. “The concept of "risk" usually refers to the probability of loss of a valued resource”.  http://wilderdom.com/risk/RiskConcept.html There are other kinds of crime prevention too. Those hinge on theories like ethical and moral lessons to citizens, trying to imbibe helping and caring priorities in them, making the able people care for the people who are at risk, neighbourhood vigilance squads and the overall concern for other human beings, animals and environment. It might look slightly less practical. But nothing could be better than appealing to the human values and the responsibility we owe to other lives. Concept of risk has not remained only in academic fields, but has become part of day-to-day life and legislative acts, “The most important application of the methodology of risk analysis is a systems investigation of the “weak links” in safety measures with the generation of recommendations for preventing and limiting the consequences of accidents.” Bakhmetev, A. (2006, p.627). The research is still in progress and criminological theorists are working on it. Slowly the world is getting to accept these theories as inevitabilities because of terrorism, not because of petty crimes. But issues like to what extent these strategies would constrain people’s freedom of movement and to what extent they intrude in their private space etc. are yet to be answered. It is important to note that every citizen has a right of anonymity in public place, if he chooses so. SCP does not answer this question. It is also another question: does any one, Government, agencies or mall/shop owners have the right to covertly collect information of an ordinary citizen who wants to remain anonymous. It is a sad fact that a citizen could not get out of his house without being photographed and pried upon. It defeats the very nature of democracy and liberty. Also this attitude can normalise the crime, as an every moment occurrence that needs constant and continuous management and in a way, it is as though the society and government accepts the crime to be so. It also implies that if not checked and prevented, any citizen could be a potential criminal, because all are treated in the same way here. Still the unfortunate facts remain that the society and its vulnerable need protection. The question of losing privacy, anonymity, to some extent, dignity and civil rights is the matter for sociologists, intellectuals and mainly for the government and law makers to decide. It is definitely necessary to build a safe society for the people to live and perhaps losing some of their civil rights might not worry the needy much. Looked from that standpoint, SCP is definitely a much needed concept that could lessen, prevent and contain the risk proportion in the modern society. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Anderson, Heine (2000), Classical and Modern Society Theory, Blackwell, Maiden. 2. Bakhmetev, A., ‘The concept of risk and its use in safety investigations’, Atomic Energy, Volume 101, Number 3, September 2006 , pp. 625-629(5) 3. Durodie, Bill, Nuffield Trust Global Programme on Health, Foreign Policy and Security, The Concept of Risk, http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Grants/Concept%20of%20Risk.pdf 4. Rasmussen, Mikkel Vedby (2006), The Risk Society at War, Cambridge University Press. 5. ONLINE SOURCES 1. 0019_04a00040_0.pdf_frame=noframe&dpi=3&userID=c253b046@cant.ac.uk_01c0a80a6900501cff477&backcontext 2. http://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/courses/PTsituationalcrime.html 3. http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/crm/crm003.pdf 4. http://wilderdom.com/risk/RiskConcept.html 5. http://yearbook2007.sipri.org/intro 6. 7. Read More