Locking gates and putting unbreakable glass on storefronts are examples of crime discouragers.

Situational Crime Prevention – Criminology

What is Situational Crime Prevention?

Situational Crime Prevention seeks to find preventative measures for the occurrence of criminal behavior. By increasing the risk of the crime and reducing the rewards for criminal behavior, we hope to prevent criminal behavior (Clarke, 1995). Cornish and Clarke (2003), outlined five prevention techniques to prevent criminal behavior: (a) increasing the effort, (b) increasing the risks, (c) reducing the rewards, (d) reducing provocations, and (e) removing excuses. Tactics to increase effort include techniques such as unbreakable glass at storefronts, locking gates and fencing yards. The presence of crime discouragers such as police, parol officers, and parents may convince the offender to limit the severity of the crime since they know someone will intervene (Siegal, 2017), which increases the risk of committing the crime.

The cause of a lot of criminal behavior is due to extreme provocation. According to Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig (2012), alcohol is a factor in a various amount of crimes. One way to reduce this sort of crime would be to increase the price of alcohol and mandating an early closing time for local bars. Click on the link to find out 6 ways of reducing crime and violence: https://www.vox.com/2016/2/15/10981274/crime-violence-policies-guns.

Benefits and Costs of Situational Crime Prevention

The benefit of Situational Crime Prevention is the deterrence of one crime may aid in the deterrence of another crime. For example, if a store puts up a video camera to limit shoplifting it may deter an individual from committing property damage as well. Even though this may be completely unintentional, the one simple act of putting up surveillance cameras can have a magnificent affect on a wide variety of criminal behaviors. On the other hand, the cost of Situational Crime Prevention is that concentration of prevention in one area may lead to the increase of criminal behavior in another area. If a certain neighborhood is heavily patrolled by police officers, these criminals may just move their criminal acts to a more vulnerable neighborhood. Another cost of Situational Crime Prevention is that often times criminals are able to adapt to new environments, and the prevention may only be temporary. According to Marcus Felson (2006) because criminals are able to adapt easily to prevention strategies put in their way, it is important for prevention strategies to be constantly changing. By continuously changing prevention strategies it will not allow the adaptability to certain conditions when it comes to criminal behavior.

How Does Rational Choice Theory Relate to Situational Crime Prevention?

Rational Choice Theory is the view that crime is a function of a decision making process in which the potential criminal weights the costs and benefits of an illegal act (Siegal, 2017). Just like there are aspects to situational crime prevention, so there are aspects to Rational Choice Theory.

First, the potential offender must evaluate the risk of the crime – those who find the risk acceptable are more likely to commit the crime. If the rewards of the crime are great, the excitement is high, the risks are small than the likelihood of the crime being committed is great. Second, the potential offender needs to evaluate if their skills are great enough the commit the crime without the immediate risks involved. If an individual believes their skills are great enough to pull off a crime with little risks involved they are more likely to commit the crime (Siegal, 2017). There are many other aspects a potential offender might take into consideration when debating a criminal act such as: choosing the place of the crime, choosing targets of the crime and how easy it is to get away. But, overall all of these aspects focus on one thing: the true risks of the crime. As mentioned earlier, if the benefits outweigh the risk the crime is going to be committed! This shows that criminal behavior is a product of calculation and immense planning, and a lot of thought goes into it. I do believe to some degree this is true, I think most people are able to calculate the cost vs. benefit of committing a crime, and use that analysis to choose wether they do so or not. However, I also think that it may not be in selfish behavior every time. For example, if a parent needs to put food on the table or their children, using the rational choice theory they may decide the benefit of robbing a grocery store outweighs the risk. Therefore, in order to benefit their family, they decide to rob the grocery store. Criminologist Robert Agnew has the same opinion in that the average person is just as likely to give consideration to others as they are to satisfy their own needs (Siegal, 2017).

So, Rational Choice Theory is all about analyzing the risk vs. benefit of committing a crime. This is where situational crime prevention comes in, situational crime prevention aims to increase the perceived risk of committing a crime. Using the techniques mentioned above, a group of people could successfully deter a potential offender away from committing a crime. If an individual goes to rob a store but notices tons of security cameras, they will think and analyze this situation. They may think the risk of getting caught and serving jail time does not outweigh the benefit of stealing money. The following link (https://gcn.com/articles/2011/09/20/surveillance-cameras-effect-on-preventing-crimes.aspx) talks about how surveillance cameras aid in the prevention of crime and how it can help many communities.

So, overall it is very important to understand how situational crime prevention works! By implementing barriers to potential offenders they will analyze the situation using a cost vs. benefit analysis. If the situational crime prevention is serious enough for the individual to think the criminal behavior is not worth the risk then you have successfully deterred a potential criminal! The more barriers the potential offender encounters the less likely they are to commit the crime!

References:

Clarke, R. (1995). Situational Crime Prevention. Crime and Justice, 19, 91-150. Retrieved March 15, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1147596

Cornish, D. B., & Clarke, R. V. (2003). Opportunities, precipitators and criminal decisions: A reply to Wortley’s critique of situational crime prevention. Crime prevention studies, 16,

Cook, P. J., & Ludwig, J. (2012). The Economist’s Guide to Crime Busting. NIJ Journal .

Felson, M. (2006). Crime and nature. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Siegel, L. J. (2017). Criminology: the core(7th ed.). Australia: Cengage.