Felson’s Crime & Everyday Life Part 2

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Felsons Crime Everyday LifePart 2

• Environmental and Situational Crime Prevention

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Overview

• Crime can be controlled through everyday
  activities by reducing temptation and increasing
  controls.
• This can be done by (re)constructing or
  rearranging aspects of the environment - with
  attention to the ecological aspects of crime and
  its prevention referred to as Environmental
  Criminology.

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Main Points in Chapter 9 Local Design against
Crime

• A fortress isnt necessary to prevent crime
  control natural access by providing natural
  surveillance and fostering territorial behavior.
  Make space hospitable for legal activities and
  crime will go down.
• Place safe activities in unsafe locations and
  vice versa as places feel better for people
  they become more secure.
• Good management lowers crime risk crime
  prevention goes beyond physical design. Poor
  management lets crime creep in.

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Environmental Crime Prevention

• designing for less crime is as easy as designing
  for more (from the work of Jane Jacobs (1961) in
  Death and Life of Great American Cities).
• Central goal of environmental crime prevention is
  to design and organize public places so that
  people can informally control their own
  environments.
• Rooted in Oscar Newmans book (1972) Defensible
  Space and C.Ray Jefferys (1971) Crime Prevention
  Through Environmental Design (CPTED)

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Environmental Criminology

• Study of how crime occurs in everyday life and
  how to prevent it.
• Term coined by Paul Patricia Brantingham
  incorporating the ideas of defensible space,
  CPTED, and the geography of crime. (The
  Brantinghams applied their work in Vancouver
  B.C.)
• Focus on role of space and time in explaining and
  preventing crime.
• Provides the framework for many aspects of law
  enforcement (problem-oriented policing,
  geographical profiling or crime mapping

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Principles of Environmental Crime Prevention/CPTED

• Control Natural Access
• Provide Natural Surveillance
• Foster Territorial Behavior
• These three main approaches are proposed by Crowe
  Zahm (1994) who, in their article Crime
  Prevention Through Environmental Design sum up
  what is known about designing out crime in 2
  words MARKING TRANSITIONS I should know when
  Im entering your space and you should know when
  youre entering mine. (p. 127)

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The Crowe-Zahm Mixing Principle

• Place safe activities in unsafe locations and
  unsafe activities in safe locations.

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Discussion Question

• Examples of effective transition marking or
  CPTED strategies?
• Examples of how the Crowe-Zahm Mixing Principle
  can be applied?

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Physical Aspects of Crime Prevention

• Target Hardening
• Construction
• Strength in Numbers
• Noise
• In designing out crime its important to be
  specific to attend to detailed aspects of
  particular physical environments/settings in
  conjunction with time/space considerations. (See
  p. 153-164 for examples of designing out crime
  in various settings).

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Main Points in Chapter 10 Situational Crime
Prevention

• Situational crime prevention is highly focused on
  preventing crime here and now. It is practical,
  not utopian - reducing inducements to commit
  crime by making crime targets less rewarding
  while increasing risk, effort, and guilt.
• Situational crime prevention doesnt displace
  crime. Rather it leads to diffusion of
  benefits whereby crime is reduced beyond the
  immediate setting.

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Situational Crime Prevention

• Concept and recommendations were developed by
  Clarke and colleagues (1976) in Crime as
  Opportunity. They developed the following policy
  for situational crime prevention
• Dont worry about academic theories go out and
  gather facts about crime from nature.
• Focus on specific aspects of crime.
• Do not try to improve human character you will
  fail.
• Try to block crime in a practical, natural, and
  simple way, at low social and economic cost.
• Fundamental tenet of situational crime prevention
  is dont get fancy.

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Discussion Questions

• Examples of specific situational crime prevention
  strategies? (see pgs. 146-153)
• Can situational crime prevention be applied to
  violent crime?

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Key Elements of Situational Crime Prevention

• Helps to understand offenders, targets, guardians
  at their convergences.
• Seeks inexpensive means to reduce crime by
• Designing safer settings
• Organizing effective procedures (for managing
  settings)
• Develop secure products

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Why isnt Situational Crime Prevention More
Widely Applied in the United States?

• Felson suggests (in the 2nd edition of the text)
• Doesnt capture the imagination/interests of
  political and moral activists.
• People think they know more about crime
  prevention than they really do.
• You cant get rich from it, unless you invent
  some new devise.
• There are misconceptions about its use
  including
• It only benefits the rich or middle class.
• Relies only on locks and guards.
• Surveillance and removal of civil liberties are
  at its core.
• Has it become more popular over the past few
  years? Why/why not?

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Discussion Questions

• Do you use environmental and/or situational crime
  prevention strategies naturally in your daily
  life? Examples?
• Can modern technology, various inventions, etc.
  ever reduce the need for vigilance in staying
  one step ahead of crime?

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Main Points in Chapter 11Crime Science and
Everyday Life

• Routine Activity theory is a general theory of
  crime.
• Crime follows ecology of nature and this is the
  underlying framework of the routine activity
  theory.
• Pay attention to illusions that undermine the
  study of crime (p. 169).
• Crime Science involves recognizing illusions that
  undermine the study of crime, recognizing that
  science is a journey, and careful data
  collections strategies.

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Three Main Principles of Routine Activity Theory

• Offender seeks to gain quick pleasure and avoid
  imminent pain.
• Routine activities of everyday life set the stage
  for illegal choices.
• Inventions, by altering daily routines, force
  crime to change.

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Data CollectionThink about Felsons points
in this chapter in conducting the data collection
phase of your term project.

• Three important segments of the criminal event
• The precrime situation
• The crime incident itself
• The aftermath of crime
• Six Basic ways to Collect Data
• Do an Experiment
• Ask Questions
• Observe Closely
• Check Justice Sources
• Find Medical Sources
• Explore Business Sources

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Great Quote

• Crime prevention is an evolutionary
  struggle,with offenders and those seeking to
  prevent crime innovating and adapting to one
  another (p. 166)

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Make sure to read sections not completely covered
in class (and incorporate into your term
projects)

• Chapter 4 Bringing Crime to You (divergent
  metropolis/convergent city and the relationship
  between transportation, population density, and
  crime)
• Chapter 5 Marketing Stolen Goods (factors
  influencing whats stolen and who steals and the
  importance of the process of marketing stolen
  goods)
• Chapter 6 Crime, Growth, Youth Activities
  (reasons why youth offers opportunities for crime
  in modern American culture)
• Chapter 7 White Collar Crime (idea of white
  collar crime as crimes of specialized access that
  fit into a larger system of routine activities)
• Chapter 8 One Crime Feeds Another (the
  relationship between minor and major crime)