How Situational Crime Prevention Contributes to Social Welfare

Situational crime prevention has been met with considerable scepticism from academic criminologists primarily for its indifference to social welfare. It has been seen as contributing to a law-and-order agenda with its focus on making public places secure for business and as supplanting social welfare policies as means of responding to crime. But situational crime prevention contributes more to social welfare than sceptics allow and its advocates (may) believe. Situational crime prevention has enjoyed its fullest and robust expression, not in the free-market, neo-liberal environment of America, but within the leading welfare states of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. This essay considers the politics of the situational approach, the alleged benefits of social crime prevention, criminalisation of social policy, unplanned social welfare benefits, assumptions about the role of business, and concerns about privacy, surveillance and control. The discussion centres on the European experience: the UK, France, The Netherlands and the Nordic countries.

Hot Spots of Crime and Place‐Based Prevention

The August Vollmer Award Address is intended to focus on contributions to justice and on the recipient's research and policy experiences. This contribution begins with the recipient recapping his personal journey to recognizing hot spots of crime and their importance for prevention. He then goes on to summarize the “law of crime concentration” and its importance for the logic model underlying this approach. He describes the seminal Minneapolis Hot Spots Patrol Experiment and the subsequent evaluation research in hot‐spots policing and place‐based prevention more generally that led to its broad acceptance as an effective crime prevention strategy. Finally, the author turns to key unanswered questions in place‐based prevention, focusing on police legitimacy, identifying jurisdictional effects, and emphasizing the importance of harnessing informal social controls.     

Evaluation of Efficiency in Crime Control and Crime Prevention Programs

The purpose of the study is to evaluate and compare the efficiency of crime control and crime prevention programs. The focus on efficiency adds knowledge about quality of performance in criminal justice programs. The case study covers twelve-year implementation process of two juvenile justice programs in a local law enforcement agency. A Truancy Reduction Program (TRP) represents the crime control approach. A School Resource Officer Program (SROP) represents the crime prevention approach. The evaluation shows that the SROP produced far more efficient results than the TRP. The SROP demonstrates gradual improvement and efficient implementation. The TRP appears inefficient and, therefore, should have been revised in the midst of the implementation period. The study draws policy implications for designing more efficient crime control and crime prevention programs. The implications can be useful for law enforcement agencies that contemplate or implement such programs     

论视频监控的犯罪预防功能及犯罪侦查价值

各国的犯罪预防理论发展至今,已经形成了比较完善的犯罪预防体系,主要包括司法预防、社会预防和情景预防三种模式。在我国的犯罪预防体系中,向来重视司法预防和社会预防,而对情景预防关注不够,情景预防措施尚不完善。作为一种对犯罪的干预,视频监控是一种对情境犯罪的干预,研究发掘其在犯罪预防中的作用对完善犯罪预防体系具有重要意义。同时,视频监控系统在犯罪侦查方面也具有重要作用。     

Constructing Crime against the Elderly in Swedish Crime Prevention Campaigns

The study investigates how crime prevention activities frame the problem of crime against the elderly, regarding character, causes, effects and solutions. Data was collected through participant observations, interviews and analysis of a film produced by a local crime prevention council in Sweden. It is concluded that crime prevention for seniors produces complex and contradicting images of the problem. In situational crime prevention seniors are warned to look out for strangers stalking them or trying to access their homes. Statements that victimization is uncommon among the old are combined with warnings that invoke images of mysterious ever-present perpetrators. In social crime prevention, where causes and interventions of crime are discussed, crime prevention officers link the problem to established social problems such as drug abuse and juvenile delinquency. This way of framing the problem is typical for a Swedish Social Democratic perspective, where lack of community and integration are defined as causes of social problems. It is concluded that warnings to look out for strangers who ask for help may be at odds with this striving towards community.     

城市和谐的安全保障：犯罪预防战略措施及其整体优化

犯罪成型是一个发展过程,控制城市犯罪泛滥的预防措施也必须是一个发展过程。必须控制社区解体的速度以及社会成员特别是贫困群体等弱势主体对经济社会变迁的承受度。公民、城市公共场所的管理者、公司、企业、事业单位都有义务根据能力采取适当的情境型犯罪预防措施控制特色的犯罪行为。发展型、社区型、情境型犯罪预防战略措施优化升级的内在要求促使犯罪预防理论与实践思考控制犯罪的全新分析视角。     

Climate Change and Crime

Conflict has a carbon footprint. Crime is a subtype of conflict. Citizen on citizen predation by force or fraud, and responses to it, have carbon costs. The paper reviews relevant literatures and notes the absence of recognition of the nexus between crime and carbon-profligate lifestyles. The writers contend that looking at crime and disorder through a carbon costing 'lens' would profoundly influence social and criminal justice policy. The precise quantification of the carbon costs of crime is beyond the scope of this paper. The preliminary estimates contained herein suggest that the direct carbon costs of crime are substantial and the consequential costs more so, to the point where it is difficult to envisage a high crime society being a low carbon society. Recognition of this would lead to a major shift in policy favouring primary crime prevention through the design, implementation and maintenance of products and services less prone to crime. The costs of crime, both fiscal and carbon, would be a matter for regret rather than action were it not for the demonstrable success of schemes to design out crime, for example from residential environments. These are briefly discussed. The scope for further improvement in designing out crime seems considerable, and an intensive programme of research to explore avenues for advance is advocated.     

Crime prevention through mass media: Prospects and problems

This article examines some social scientific issues relating to the operation and evaluation of crime prevention through mass media programs. It is argued that the efficacy of such programs is dependent upon the successful application of several empirically based communication principles. In addition, the attempt is made to analyze several general problems concerning the meaning and measurement of program success. Issues relating to both the operation and the evaluation of crime prevention through mass media programs are discussed in terms of their practical implications for public policy.     

Crime in Asia: Toward a Better Future

There are two fundamental ways to reduce crime: fix crime prevention weaknesses or build on crime prevention strengths. Three crime prevention strengths that have delivered most Asian societies comparatively low and falling levels of violence are considered: (1) war reduction as a path to reduction of common criminal violence; (2) comparatively low levels of inequality; (3) comparatively low ratios of stigmatizing to reintegrative social control that respects human dignity. Transformative justice that addresses the root causes of wars, reduces inequalities of wealth and power, and empowers communities to do their own restorative justice are paths considered for building a nonviolent Asian future.     

宽严相济政策对犯罪控制效率的兼顾

宽严相济的刑事政策以促进社会和谐为基本价值目标,但这一政策对犯罪控制的效率可能产生一定的消极影响。犯罪控制效率同样决定着社会和谐的程度,因此,实施宽严相济刑事政策必须兼顾犯罪控制的效率。其主要对策是,借鉴《联合国反腐败公约》制定的反腐败策略,在立法和司法两个层面鼓励涉嫌犯罪者与刑事执法机关合作,并以现代侦查手段武装侦查机关,提高侦查、公诉机关揭露和证实犯罪的能力。     

犯罪网络分析:社会网络分析在有组织犯罪研究中的应用

在刑事司法领域所使用的"网络"(networks)一词通常是指犯罪组织。一个犯罪网络首先也是一个社会网络,社会网络分析是对社会关系结构及其属性加以分析的一套规范和方法。它主要分析的是不同社会单位(个体、群体或社会)所构成的关系的结构及其属性。自美国"9.11事件"以来,世界各国政府、学者、媒体逐渐认识到社会网络分析在有组织犯罪防控研究中的重要作用,纷纷使用社会网络分析方法对恐怖主义犯罪等有组织犯罪进行犯罪网络分析、研究,通过解构犯罪组织,发现犯罪成员体系、结构特征与行动目标,从而对有组织犯罪进行有效预防和打击。我国应充分认识社会网络分析在现代有组织犯罪防控研究中的重要价值,全面了解国外有关理论与应用发展,积极采取政府资助项目研发与直接设立研究机构等多种手段,促进犯罪网络分析理论与方法在我国的迅速发展。     

On the Road to the Rule of Law: Crime, Crime Control, and Public Opinion in China

Since 1978, the Chinese reform policy has brought fast economic developments and social change but also considerably higher crime levels. China’s rapid modernization has resulted in a situation of increased opportunities and Durkheimian anomie. The Chinese government responds to the worsening crime situation with punitive criminal sanctions, especially under the ‘strike hard’ policy. However, a punitive crime control ideology and repressive criminal norms are neither effective in stopping the crime wave nor in compliance with the aim to establish the rule of law. After examining the negative effects the strike hard policy has brought to the Chinese criminal justice, we present findings from a recent web survey among Chinese students in Germany (N=ca. 900). We use these data to explore the punitive attitudes, esp. towards the death penalty, among the Chinese young elite.     

Crime prevention in residential districts by urban planning measures

Crime prevention cannot be achieved through police control alone, nor can it be achieved through interventions in the physical or social urban environment alone: it needs a combination of several approaches. The concept of defensible space proved to be too limited in scope for direct application. A proper combination of strategies integrates inter alia urban design, community organization and housing management. Urban planning, in a wider sense, can be conducive to the reduction of crime and fear of crime. Examples of urban planning concepts and elements illustrate the variety of (possibly) preventive measures. The measures should be embedded in an integrative criminal policy on the municipal level.     

Crime prevention strategies by the United Nations: A global perspective

Most of the studies on crime show that no society is immune from crime and organized crime. Large or small, complex or simple, developed or underdeveloped, every society faces the task of controlling crime and organized crime. Furthermore, recent events reveal that the so‐called ‘'domestic crime'’ has become more globalized, or internationalized. Unless dramatic changes take place, collectively, e.g., by the United Nations, no single nation can expect to control or regulate illegal activities. In particular, crime prevention and criminal justice has been a long standing agenda item of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council; the two principal legislative bodies governing the United Nations program of work in the criminal justice field. The Council is, after the Assembly itself, the major legislative and policy‐making organ of the United Nations. The field of criminal justice is an important component of social and economic affair, the Economic and Social Council determines policy and initiates activities. Within the United Nations system, the most direct responsibility for international efforts toward crime prevention and control is borne by the recently created Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (which has replaced the expert subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council, namely, the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control) and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch. The establishment of the Commission, by the Economic and Social Council in February 1992, ushered in a new era in United Nations involvement in crime prevention and criminal justice. The commitment of the Member States to the prevention of crime and the promotion of justice through strengthened international cooperation has been clearly spelled out in numerous General Assembly and Economic and Social Council resolutions. Those resolutions are indicative of the Member States’ heightened awareness and concern that crime, in its internationalized form, has to be tackled by a multilateral approach including international cooperative measures, and that interdependent efforts are urgently required. The Commission provides a means by which Governments can be directly involved in the determination and supervision of the program of work of the United Nations in crime prevention and can clearly manifest their political will. Its establishment was the result of a long process of review of the functioning and program of work of the United Nations in crime prevention and criminal justice, and was seen as an indispensable condition of a structural reorganization of United Nations activities in this field. For further information on CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, and THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, see UN Newsletter, Numbers 22/23, July, l993. Further information on Operational Activities of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch since the First Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in April 1992 (on Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe Western Europe and North America and Global aspects, see the same documents, pp. 22–26 for more detail.     

经济刑法中危险犯的立法问题研究

危险犯的采用及其在立法上的扩展是立法对风险社会的回应,也是经济犯罪立法的重要特征。通过对近年我国经济犯罪的刑事立法的分析,可以发现《刑法》在大量增设经济犯罪罪名的同时,经济犯罪的危险犯的成立范围也大大扩展。同时,出于法益保护的早期化,预防社会风险等方面的现实需要,在经济刑法中设立抽象危险犯颇有其必要性和合理性。基于维护经济秩序安全的需要,可以考虑在经济刑法中谨慎地规定过失危险犯。     

Police Strikes and Conventional Crime

Employing FBI "Return A Record Card" data, this study examines the impact of municipal police strikes on reported rates of burglary, robbery, larceny, and auto theft in 11 U.S. cities. Relationships reflecting the view that police presence is essential for crime prevention and social order are examined for variation duration of police strike, city size, and offense category. Overall, analysis yields very limited support for the police presence argument, suggesting that strikes have neither a significant nor a systematic impact on rates of reported crime. Implications of findings for the formulation of police policy are discussed.     

The Social Scientist and Rehabilitative Crime Policy

Social scientists are in a quandary about crime policy. On the one hand, the tools of their discipline incline them naturally toward a search for the causes of differences in delinquent behavior, an inclination which appears to be supportive of the potential for rehabilitative components to crime policy. Both the premise of determinism and the methodology of differentiation are intellectually compatible with the prospects for rehabilitation, because both are requisites for a crime control strategy that seeks the impact of purposeful changes in the lives or attitudes of delinquents on subsequent behavior. On the other hand, social scientists are being confronted with a number of arguments that question the utility for social policy of adherence to these assumptions. The validity of some of these arguments is explored briefly in this article. They are found to suffer from an erroneous conception of the logic of determinism, an underdevelopment of the notion of deterrence, or an artifactual conception of the requisites for rehabilitation.     

Understanding Victim Support as Crime Prevention Work: The Construction of Young Victims and Villains in the Dominant Crime Victim Discourse in Sweden

Starting from the observation that a new victim category has emerged in the form of the ‘young crime victim’, this article explores the notion of support to young crime victims as crime prevention work, considering it as an important constituent of the dominant crime victim discourse among support professionals. In the context of the support work, the (young) ‘victim’ and the (young) ‘villain’ provide mutually necessary counterparts constructed in relation to each other. Corresponding to this division, two approaches in criminal and crime prevention policy and practice are then analysed using Garland's notions of ‘the criminology of the self’ and ‘the criminology of the other’. The first of these strategies is generally associated with rehabilitative measures (with the resulting normalization of the crime, its victims, and villains), while in the second punitive measures remain the norm (with the crime, its victims, and villains becoming ‘Otherized’). Yet, as shown within the context of rehabilitation organized as support to young crime victims, both of these (at first glance mutually contradictory) discourses are drawn upon and operationalized by the professional support staff constructing images of young victims and villains in their daily work. Help-seeking youths resistant to identifying as victims remain represented as (possible future) villains.     

少一些法律，多一些秩序——中西方犯罪预防策略的考察与批评

考察西方犯罪预防策略的变迁，可以发现法律和刑罚在预防策略中具有十分重要的位置。但是20世纪80年代以来，另一种预防思维已经产生，这就是针对犯罪诱因的多机构协作模式，其特点是强调社会政策而非刑罚，强调非法律方法而非法律方法，强调社会秩序而非犯罪控制。考察西方犯罪预防策略的优缺点，可为我国犯罪预防策略提供借鉴。     

全球化进程与我国社区犯罪防控体系研究

我国社区犯罪防控体系的运行一直采取以政府特别是警察治安行政为主体的社区治安管理模式。20世纪70年代末期和80年代初期,随着全球化的兴起,我国政府提出了社会治安综合治理的方针,并由此构成中国社区犯罪防控体系规划与执行的决策背景和基本的策略原则,但社区犯罪防控体系规划与执行的政治过程、行政过程、经济过程和文化过程产生的偏差以及由此引起的社区犯罪防控体系的设计、构建和运行问题并未达到预期的设计目标。解决这一问题的关键是重新审视和构建社区犯罪防控理论范式及与之相应的社区治安治理模式,建立起以社会治安综合治理方针为指导的一种新的社区犯罪防控理论范式、认知框架和与之相应的社区治安、治理制度创新体系及运行模式。