Essay on Situational & Social Crime Prevention

Resource Description

Essay on Situational & Social Crime Prevention

Question: Discuss how successful situational and social crime prevention strategies are in achieving compliance in regard to criminal law

Intro: Situational and social crime prevention strategies have been mostly successful in achieving compliance with criminal law amongst certain categories of crime. However, while situational crime prevention measures have been generally effective, they prove to be considerably more expensive and less resource efficient than social crime prevention strategies that fundamentally aim to address the underlying factors that affect criminal behaviour. Situational crime prevention aims to reduce the opportunity for crime through a pragmatic approach by altering opportunistic premises and modifying environmental factors to limit offenders from engaging in criminal behaviour. Whilst government approaches to situational strategies have been largely effective in increasing adherence with the law, the justification for widespread CCTV and Sydney’s Lock-out laws show no indication of decreasing crime rates, demonstrating the ineffectiveness of these measures in encouraging compliance. Social crime prevention attempts to address the underlying social factors that may lead to criminal behaviour. According to criminologists, the most effective way of preventing local crime and increasing compliance with the law is through early intervention schemes and education plans to protect individual rights. However, social crime prevention strategies have been mostly ineffective for offenders of ATSI decent with statistics indicating that recidivism rates are high. In this way, preventative measures have been mostly effective in encouraging compliance with the law despite grey-areas.