Situational Criminology/Crime Prevention

1. Situational Criminology/Crime Prevention Sam Poyser

2. Aims • What is situational criminology/crime prevention • The case against traditional criminology & for situational criminology • Routine Activities & Rational Choice theories explained • Hot spots (briefly) & Hot products • SCP of child sexual abuse • Critique

3. What is situational criminology/crime prevention? • Intervening in the causal chain to prevent crime from occurring

4. Traditional Criminological concernsBrantingham & Brantingham (1991) • Crime has 4 determinants: the law, an offender, a target & a place • Classical perspective concerned primarily with the law, • Positivist criminology with the offender, • Leaves: target & the place (situational factors) • Traditional Criminology about trying to understand & explain crime and criminality • Looks at issues such as psychological & social disadvantage for example • Aims to help fashion a humane CJS – emphasises the need to reform criminals & deal with societal inequalities

5. The case against traditional theorising • Criminological theories always provisional & incomplete • Impossible to achieve a ‘true’ understanding of crime - Focus on the causes of crime (e.g. poverty, etc) simply results in ‘utopian’ proposals for change • No evidence to show that deterrence through punishment has significant effect on crime rates • Treatment programmes to ‘change’ individual offenders are unproductive • Crime control through social reform not realistic/difficult to measure • Criminology needs to pay far more attention to practical utility and should be focused on helping to find ways to control crime (Clarke, 2004)

6. The case for situational criminology/crime science • Much research indicates that crime can be immediately reduced by focusing on the reduction of situational opportunities (Clarke 1997) • Criminologists must be prepared to abandon theories unless they assist the mission of controlling crime • Criminology should help to find ways to tighten security & increase the risks of being caught. i.e. should be concerned with prevention & control • The more helpful theories are those that assist crime policy, such as:

7. ‘Defensible space’ theory (or informal social control) • Newman (1973) - 3 factors increase crime in residential areas: • Anonymity (neighbours don’t know each other) • Lack of natural surveillance (easier to offend, unnoticed) • Many exits (easier to escape)

10. Developed ‘defensible space’ model for a residential area that creates a physical environment inhibiting crime - 4 elements: • 1) Territoriality: • creation of a physical environment so that there are clear demarcations of a zone’s ownership - residents feel that they ‘own’ & belong to their building & thus can & should defend it • 2) Surveillance: • design of buildings to maximise the ability of inhabitants to observe their own territorial areas - can increase the no. of observers & the probability an offender would be seen

11. ‘Defensible space’ theory (or informal social control)…continued • 3) Image: • design of an environment so that stigma is minimised • Offenders will be deterred or encouraged by visual cues from the space & its inhabitants – related to ‘Broken Windows’ Theory • 4) Safe zones: • the location of the building in respect to streets, parks, & other physical features of the neighbouring environment - barriers should be created between private, public, & semi-public space. This makes private space, defensible space.

12. Example: Maximises the number of “eyes on the street” Reduces likelihood of offending as more chance of apprehension (& enhances feelings of security)

14. The more helpful theories are those that assist crime policy: Routine Activities Theory • Routine Activities Theory: (Cohen & Felson, 1979: 589): • ‘Unlike many criminological enquiries, we do not examine why individuals or groups are inclined to criminality, but rather we take criminal inclinations as given & examine the manner in which spatio-temporal organisation of social activities helps to translate their criminal inclinations into action’ • For a crime to occur 3 elements must converge in time & space: • The presence of likely offenders • The presence of suitable targets • The absence of a capable guardian

15. Routine Activities Theory • Increases in crime rates accompanied changing patterns of routine activities • Increased no. of working women & single households • More activities outside the home = more time away from the home • Large no.s of capable guardians removed - homes more vulnerable • Simultaneously, ‘consumer revolution’ = increasing no. of suitable targets - smaller, lighter, portable, valuable electronic goods • Crime increased not because of social decline but because of growing prosperity!

16. The more helpful theories are those that assist crime policy: Rational Choice Theory • Emphasises the rationality & voluntary thought processes of offenders & decision-making processes behind whether or not to offend at any given time • Criminal = calculates dis/advantages associated with certain activities • Prevention is aimed at altering the decision making process to increase risk or effort of crime & decrease the rewards

17. Rational Choice Theory • Decision to offend is: • - taken freely & actively - made in response to immediate circumstances in which offence is contemplated - based upon calculation of costs & benefits • Offenders act rationally in response to opportunities • So if opportunity can be removed, the level of crime can be reduced • We should take more account of specific situations where crimes are committed & of the thinking offenders might undertake

18. Situational Crime Prevention - Cornish and Clarke (2003) - 5 Ways to Modify a Situation • Increasing the effort the offender must make to carry out the crime. • Increasing the risks the offender must face in completing the crime. • Reducing the rewards or benefits the offender expects to obtain from the crime. • Reducing or avoiding provocations that may tempt or incite offenders into criminal acts • Removing excuses that offenders may use to “rationalize” or justify their actions. • 'Twenty-five Techniques of Situational Crime Prevention’ by Cornish and Clarke (2003):

20. Suitable targets: Hot spots & hot products • ‘Hot spots’ = places that have a high rate of reported crimes (Sherman et al., 1989) • Crime not spread evenly across all places, people or times - preventive measures must be directed to where crime is most concentrated. • E.g. Repeat victimisation - people/places that suffer a series of crimes in a relatively short period of time (Farrell and Pease, 1993). Helpful in focusing efforts to prevent burglary • Focusing on ‘hot spots’ & giving priority to ‘repeat victims’ of crime proved useful for crime reduction measures

21. Suitable targets - Hot spots & hot products • ‘Hot products’ = consumer items that are most attractive to thieves. • Clarke (1999): we should focus policy & research on ‘hot products’ - suitable targets - valuable, small, portable consumer goods. • Ultimate hot product is cash - helps determine distribution of many kinds of theft, inc. commercial robberies, muggings, burglaries

22. Hot products: Understanding, anticipating & reducing demand for stolen goods. Police Research Series Paper 112 • Review of the most stolen items for a variety of theft types: • For each kind of theft, specific items are consistently chosen by thieves • Residential burglaries: thieves most likely to pick jewellery, videos, cash, stereos, televisions • Shoplifting: items depend on the store - e.g. supermarkets likely to lose cigarettes, video tapes, beauty aids & non-prescription medicines • Certain items (inc. cigarettes, alcoholic drinks, fashion items) are at risk of being shoplifted wherever sold. • BCS: for thefts involving personal possessions, cash more frequently taken than anything else – followed by vehicle parts, clothing & tools.

23. Relatively few hot products appear to account for a large proportion of all thefts. • Key attributes of hot products are summarised by CRAVED, - 6 elements making products attractive to thieves: • Concealable • Removable • Available • Valuable • Enjoyable • Disposable • This explains which products are stolen…but how much they are stolen may depend on 1 attribute: ease of disposal

24. Wortley & Smallbone (2006): Apply a SCP model to sexual offences against children • Explanations of sexual offending against children: offenders are traditionally portrayed as internally driven to offend • SCP approach examines the immediate external setting to identify factors that permit or encourage abuse • Evidence suggests that sex offences against children are very much mediated by opportunities & other environmental conditions • Need to systematically identify & alter these problematic environmental elements

25. Wortley & Smallbone (2006) • Interviewed 323 convicted sex offenders • Found that immediate environmental factors were very important in decision to offend in many cases • E.g. the mean age for onset of offending was 32 years old – early 30s is an age when many men are assuming child care/other supervisory roles with children – opportunity to offend is very much increased

26. Wortley & Smallbone (2006) Locations for finding a child (extra-familial): • Domestic settings were most popular: • Over 50% accessed victims through: a friend’s home, through baby-sitting, at offender’s block of flats or place of employment • (Domestic setting most common place to access victims/commit crime but difficult to access re: SCP) • But public sphere was also important: • A public toilet (13%), a shopping centre, park, swimming pool or church (11%), a playground (5%), an amusement arcade (4%) and at the Cinema (3%) • Public settings offer the greatest potential – e.g. through design of public toilets, extending guardianship, controlling access,

27. Scenario • Abuser goes to a shopping centre to watch young children – a young girl seems to be alone (opportunity) • Decision to offend will be based on presence/absence of situational risk factors such as whether: • The child is really alone or temporarily separated from guardian • The child’s guardian is actively searching for them & may return at any moment • Offender is surrounded by a crowd who could be alerted by the child’s cries • Offender notices surveillance cameras & fears being caught on tape • Shopping centre is regularly patrolled by security officers • More likely to offend if child is alone & unsupervised by a guardian, near an exit, without any potential witnesses & there’s an absence of cameras & security officers • So a cost-benefit analysis is made • Such considerations only help re: ‘stranger-danger cases’, but are still worthy of attention

28. Situational crime prevention of rape?...of corporate crime? • http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/uploads/approved/adt-QGU20090623.115822/public/02Whole.pdf - Murray, M. (2007) • Some very interesting findings • Re-imagining crime prevention: controlling corporate crime? • Anne Alvesalo, Steve Tombs, Erja Virta and Dave Whyte (2006)

29. The case against situational criminology • Situational criminology was developed primarily by the Home Office in late 70s – Administrative criminology - ‘Administrative’ refers to the politically pragmatic nature of this work. • A managerial solution to crime - “…content to manage the problem & keep it from overwhelming the forces of law & order” (Clarke, 2005: 57) • There are many reasons why people might commit crime, some which may override free will & rationality • Sometimes the risk itself may be an attraction, e.g. joyriding, drug taking, etc – scp has less to say about crimes that may evoke some expressive dimension

30. The case against situational criminology • Issues of privacy, civil liberties & human rights - particularly the emphasis on surveillance (we are the most heavily ‘watched’ and ‘monitored’ countries in the world) – fears that we have "sleep-walked into a surveillance society" • There are up to 4.2m CCTV cameras in Britain - about one for every 14 people. • Emphasis on environment-centred techniques of ‘target hardening’ may accelerate community segregation/social exclusion • Fragments society – outsiders seen as potential offenders, not innocent visitors? - increases fear/culture of mistrust/suspicion? • Surrounding people with security technologies may increase fear – ‘outside’ is dangerous: • “Once people retreat into the private sphere of the ‘fortress family’ or…the ‘defended enclosure’ the world beyond becomes firmly cast as the source…of danger” (Loader, 1997, p. 157) – do we want to live in gated communities? (Atkinson et al, 2004)

31. The case against situational criminology • Emphasis on target hardening has encouraged government policy which ignores the conditions which give rise to crime (Young, 1994). • Measures focus not on the causes of crime, but the control of the opportunities to commit crime – how far do we want to control our environment? • Giddens (1991) in the name of trying to control crime ‘risks’ we have seen the emergence of an ‘engineered society’ – technologically-based social-control (Gary Marx, 1995) • Are these measures always used to protect us? Are there other reasons for using them?: ‘Security means safety; safety means shoppers; & shoppers means profits. . .’ (Beck & Willis, 1995: 232). • Not a ‘once and for all cure all’ – must be sustained even when the problem appears to have been solved & often need to be adjusted in response to criminal adaptations

32. Displacement • SCP measures may lead to crimes being displaced • Reppetto (1976) identified 5 forms of displacement: • Temporal - The crime is committed…at a different time • Tactical – …using a different method • Territorial – …in a different area • Target – …against a different target • Functional – A different type of crime is committed • Barr & Pease (1990) - 6th category: • Perpetrator displacement – Prevented crimes are committed by different offenders

33. Displacement • Consequences of preventing prostitution in residential area: • - some may move area – territorial • - some may use massage parlours, cards in phone booths – tactical • - some may operate at times least problematic - temporal • - some may turn to other crimes e.g. shoplifting – functional • - some may give up – i.e. not commit the crime – go & get a legitimate job

34. Displacement • Those who accept displacement might occur, argue - since not ALL crime is displaced, some benefit exists • Displacement may well lead to crimes being committed elsewhere but if these are lesser crimes (benign displacement) then ok? • Displacement is positive as long as “the deflected crime causes less harm & misery than the original crime” (Pease, 1997, p978) • But some evidence of malign displacement – frustrated shoplifter may decide to rob the store

35. Diffusion of benefits • Sometimes the reverse of displacement can occur • Rather than crime being exported to other times/places benefits can spread beyond the intended area/target – Felson & Clarke (1999) found: • When CCTV cameras were introduced to monitor 3 car parks at Surrey Uni, crime declined not only in these but also in another that did not have CCTV • When CCTV cameras were put into 5 double-decker buses (out of a fleet of 80 in North England), vandalism by school kids dropped for the whole fleet • Potential offenders may be aware that new prevention measures have been introduced but are often unsure of their precise scope – short-term benefit?

36. Durkheim (1895) - argued for the ‘normality’ of crime & deviance & for limits to crime control in the ‘good society’ • …so an orderly, conforming, highly controlled, highly regulated society is not necessarily a ‘healthy’ society?

37. References • Cohen, L. and Felson, M. (1979) ‘Social Change and crime rate trends: a routine activity approach’, American Sociological Review 44: 588-608 • Clarke, R. and Felson, M. (1993) Routine activity and rational choice. New Brunswick: Transaction • Clarke, R. (1999) Hot products: Understanding, anticipating and reducing demand for stolen goods. Police Research Series Paper 112. London: Home Office • Clarke, R. (2004) ‘Technology, Criminology and Crime Science’, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 10: 55 - 63 • Crawford, 1998 • Gilling, D. (1997) Crime Prevention: Theory, policy and politics, London: UCL Press • Hughes, G. (2002) Understanding crime prevention: Social control, risk and late modernity, Buckingham: Open University Press. • Wortley, R & Smallbone, S. (2006). Applying situationa pricipals to sexual offences against children. In Wortley & Smallbone. (Eds). Situational prevention of child sexual abuse. Devon: Willan • Young, J. (1994) ‘Incessant Chatter: Recent Paradigms in Criminology, in M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds), Oxford Handbook of Criminology (1st edn). Oxford: Clarenden Press

38. Take a walk on campus and identify some places/areas that might benefit from situational crime prevention • Identify/devise some low-cost situational crime prevention methods that would make your halls of residence/house more secure