Examine the effectiveness of crime prevention strategies in reducing crime
Crime prevention looks at places and situations which are not yet troubled by much
criminal activities and seeks to stop crime from occurring in such places. Right
realists seek to devise practical measures of crime prevention that make crime less
attractive. They criticise other theories for failing to offer realistic solutions to the
problem of crime. Right realists suggest crime prevention strategies such as
situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and environmental improvement. Ron
Clarke describes situational crime prevention as a pre-emptive approach that relies,
not on improving society but simply on reducing opportunities for crime.
Situational crime prevention measures are directed at specific crimes. They involve
managing or altering the immediate environment of crime and aim at increasing the
effort and risks of committing crime and reducing the rewards. An example of
situational crime prevention is ‘target hardening’ such as locking doors and windows,
surveillance and the use of CCTV. This would reduce crime by making it harder for
the offenders to commit opportunity crimes. This shows that situational crime
prevention is effective as it prevents opportunity crime by making it harder for the
offenders to commit the crimes.
However, situational crime prevention is criticised as it assumes that all offenders
are rational and weigh the benefits and cost of crime before engaging in crime. This
might however not be the case for example in a situation where the offender is a
drug addict who is stealing in order to get money to buy drugs and does not think
about the consequences of his or her actions before committing the crime. Another
criticism of situational crime prevention measures is that they do not reduce crime
but simply displace it. If the criminal is acting rationally as suggested, they would
respond to target hardening by moving to where targets are softer. This suggests
that situational crime prevention strategies such as target hardening are not effective
as they do not prevent crime but instead relocate crime. However, an example of
where the situational measures were successful is in the 1960s whereby most
suicides were committed by toxic coal gas. The coal gas was gradually replaced by
Crime prevention looks at places and situations which are not yet troubled by much
criminal activities and seeks to stop crime from occurring in such places. Right
realists seek to devise practical measures of crime prevention that make crime less
attractive. They criticise other theories for failing to offer realistic solutions to the
problem of crime. Right realists suggest crime prevention strategies such as
situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and environmental improvement. Ron
Clarke describes situational crime prevention as a pre-emptive approach that relies,
not on improving society but simply on reducing opportunities for crime.
Situational crime prevention measures are directed at specific crimes. They involve
managing or altering the immediate environment of crime and aim at increasing the
effort and risks of committing crime and reducing the rewards. An example of
situational crime prevention is ‘target hardening’ such as locking doors and windows,
surveillance and the use of CCTV. This would reduce crime by making it harder for
the offenders to commit opportunity crimes. This shows that situational crime
prevention is effective as it prevents opportunity crime by making it harder for the
offenders to commit the crimes.
However, situational crime prevention is criticised as it assumes that all offenders
are rational and weigh the benefits and cost of crime before engaging in crime. This
might however not be the case for example in a situation where the offender is a
drug addict who is stealing in order to get money to buy drugs and does not think
about the consequences of his or her actions before committing the crime. Another
criticism of situational crime prevention measures is that they do not reduce crime
but simply displace it. If the criminal is acting rationally as suggested, they would
respond to target hardening by moving to where targets are softer. This suggests
that situational crime prevention strategies such as target hardening are not effective
as they do not prevent crime but instead relocate crime. However, an example of
where the situational measures were successful is in the 1960s whereby most
suicides were committed by toxic coal gas. The coal gas was gradually replaced by
