Paper Example: Approaches to Crime Prevention

Crime is a social problem in the community, which affects thousands of people as well as organizations each day. Crimes like murder, rape, break-in as well theft are significant challenges to the safety of the society. Crime prevention refers to the strategies which are established by people, communities, courts, and non -governmental organizations in targeting several environmental and social factors that increase the risk of victimization, disorder, and crime. Different approaches are used in a crime to prevent based on the type of crime committed. This paper will provide a discussion on contrast and comparison of the current dominant strategies used by law enforcement, courts, and correction in preventing the occurrence of crime.

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The most common approaches for crime prevention used by corrections, law enforcement, and courts are environmental design, situational crime prevention, and social development as well as community police approach.

Law enforcement agencies implement several approaches in combating crime and ensuring the safety of the public. Community policy is an approach that tends to address the causes of criminal acts and the reduction of the disorder in the community through community partnering with police and problem-solving strategy. The community police approach is the new frontier of crime prevention efforts. Under this approach, the police and the public cooperate in preventing the occurrence of crime and solve crime issues (Hope, 1995). In this approach, police take the initiative of fighting criminal acts locally in the areas in which they occur. It features the decentralization of the command through substations to enhance the interaction between citizens and police. It involves police conducting foot patrols in areas prone to crime they walk and talk to citizens who help them in acquiring information about the offenders, their residences, as well as the time they commit crimes as well as the frequency of the crime incidences.

This community policing approach focuses on watching the neighborhood as well as patrolling the community. The aim of the strategy is seeking to engage residents, faith-based organizations, and society in addressing issues that lead to community disorder, delinquency, and crime.

Situational crime prevention reduces the chances for offenders to commit a crime by making transformations to or altering the surroundings with the help of agencies, police as well as neighbors (Clarke, 1980). The theories underlying this approach are routine activities, environmental crime prevention, and rational offender perception.

Situational crime prevention (SCP) is concerned with more immediate chances of committing a crime. SCP seeks to diminish the effects as a result of criminal acts through changing direct or situational influences in the surroundings, which are the target area of criminals. The major pillars of this approach are the body of evaluation practice, theoretical foundation, set of opportunity-reducing strategies as well as standard methodology.

The theory behind SCP focuses on creating a safety mechanism that aids in the protection of people through making criminals feel they are incapable of committing crimes since their target areas have security, or they can easily be detected. Thus, they are becoming unwilling to commit crimes under the SCP approach. For example, automated traffic enforcement has been using SCP, which it makes use of automatic cameras on the reds to catch drivers who are breaking traffic rules such as running red lights or over-speeding ( Clarke, 1980). SCP differs from community policing and the environmental design approach since its main focus is on the criminal setting, and it begins its operation by examining the situation that creates room for crime then introducing the changes to the appropriate environment with the target of reducing the chances for a specific crime.

Environmental design is another approach that is used in crime prevention. This approach is used in discouraging crime and promoting of security buildings. The main principles of ecological design approach include maintenance, territorial reinforcement, natural access control as well as natural surveillance. The approach holds that proper design and effective use of the inbuilt environment can diminish the incidence and the fear of crime (Jeffery, 1971). Environmental design differs from the other approaches since it promotes high-quality and visually pleasing solutions as an immediate response, which has the objective of enhancing the legitimate use of space. The strategies involved under environmental design as an approach to crime reduction include first, the provision of adequate lighting in the premises as well as organizations (Sutton, Cherney, & White, 2014). Secondly, minimizing isolated routes and concealed routes. Thirdly, the creation of a sense of ownership through management and maintenance. Also, improving the general design of the built surroundings.

The most effective approaches are the community police approach and environmental design. For environmental design, it makes it possible for law enforcers to benefit from clarification and action on neighborhood proprieties, which are linked to crime and quality of life. And for the community, there will be an improved sense of security and quality of life through the reduction of fear of criminal activities. In contrast, the community police approach leads to a reduction of anxiety in the community through the connection between residents and police, making the residents feel more secure. Also, this approach helps in the establishment of trust between the police and the community.

In conclusion, crime prevention includes deterring criminals from committing crimes and reduction of criminal activities. Crime prevention reduces the risk of increasing victimization in society. The approaches used for crime prevention include situational crime prevention approach, community police approach, as well as environmental design. The most effective strategies are ecological design and the community police approach, as illustrated above.

References

Clarke, R. V. (1980). Situational crime prevention: Theory and practice. Brit. J. Criminology, 20, 136. https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/bjcrim20&section=19

Hope, T. (1995). Community crime prevention. Crime and Justice, 19, 21-89. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/449229

Jeffery, C. R. (1971). Crime prevention through environmental design (Vol. 91). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=10719

Sutton, A., Cherney, A., & White, R. (2014). Crime prevention: Principles, perspectives and practices. Cambridge University Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=udwaAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=crime+prevention+approaches&ots=q_lwF4Umsk&sig=9iHc6HJsbGeYnzwrALfi6ifgkx8

Tonry, M., & Farrington, D. P. (1995). Strategic approaches to crime prevention. Crime and Justice, 19, 1-20. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/449228