Crime Prevention

Approaches, Practices, and Evaluations

Steven Lab, Steven P. Lab

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429751950
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Edition: 10

Crime Prevention: Approaches, Practices, and Evaluations, Tenth Edition, meets the needs of students and instructors for engaging, evidence-based, impartial coverage of interventions that can reduce or prevent deviance. This edition examines the entire gamut of prevention, from physical design to developmental prevention to identifying high-risk individuals to situational initiatives to partnerships and beyond. Strategies include primary prevention measures designed to prevent conditions that foster deviance; secondary prevention measures directed toward persons or conditions with a high potential for deviance; and tertiary prevention measures to deal with persons who have already committed crimes.

In this book, Lab offers a thorough and well-rounded discussion of the many sides of the crime prevention debate in clear and accessible language, including the latest research concerning space syntax, physical environment and crime, neighborhood crime prevention programs, community policing, crime in schools, and electronic monitoring and home confinement.

This book is essential for undergraduates studying criminal justice, criminology, and sociology, in the US and globally. Online resources include an instructor's manual, test bank, and lecture slides for faculty, and a wide array of resources for students.

Chapter 1 Crime and the Fear of Crime

Chapter Outline

• The Problem of Crime in Society
  • Official Measures of Crime
  • Measuring Victimization
  • Summary
• The Costs of Crime/Victimization
• The Fear of Crime
  • Defining Fear
  • Measuring Fear
  • The Level of Fear
  • Fear and Crime
  • Fear and Demographics
  • Explaining the Divergent Findings
  • Benefits of Fear
  • Fear Summary
• Summary

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• Identify and discuss different measures of crime and victimization.
• Identify shortcomings with measures of crime and victimization.
• Discuss the changing crime rates in the United States.
• Explain how a panel survey works.
• Provide information on the costs of crime/victimization.
• Give a definition of fear and discuss how it manifests itself.
• Explain the differences among fear, worry, and assessments of crime.
• Discuss the levels of fear in society and how fear relates to crime and victimization.
• Define vicarious victimization.
• Provide reasons for the reported levels of fear.
• Define incivility and show how it relates to fear.

Crime remains an indisputable fact of life for many, if not most, members of modern society. This is true despite the frequent declarations that crime continues to fall and is reaching levels not seen in years. Although the overall level of crime has fallen in recent years, large numbers of citizens are still victimized every year and the impact of crime on everyone in society is substantial. Beyond those who are actually victimized, many individuals are fearful of crime and victimization. That fear has consequences of its own for both individuals and our communities. Crime and fear lead most individuals to turn to the criminal justice system for help. The ability of the criminal justice system to single-handedly alleviate crime and fear in society has been seriously questioned by both proponents and opponents. Despite the claims by some that the reductions in crime since the early 1990s are due to concerted police actions, there is little reason to believe that actions of the criminal justice system are the primary (or sole) cause of the reductions. At the same time, crime and fear still impact the lives of many individuals. Society clearly needs to continue to pursue means of preventing crime and fear.

This first chapter attempts to show how crime and fear have changed over time and remain problems that need to be addressed. It is this information that forms the basis for continued calls for crime prevention actions. After examining the level and change in actual crime in society, this chapter examines the impact of crime on victims and society. It also examines the companion issue of fear of crime. Indeed, the “fear of crime” poses a greater, more far-reaching problem for society and its members. Demonstrating a need for crime prevention is not difficult to accomplish when you consider the levels of crime and fear in society.

The Problem of Crime in Society

The magnitude of the crime problem can be evaluated using both official and victimization measures of crime. The use of official crime statistics, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports, provides a view of crime from the standpoint of what the formal criminal justice system must handle. Many critics argue that this provides an inaccurate and incomplete analysis of the true levels of crime in society. These individuals point to the results of victimization surveys as a basis for their argument. Although each presents a different absolute level of crime, both tend to reveal similar patterns in criminal activity over time.

Official Measures of Crime

The FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCRs) are the most widely used and cited official measures of crime in the United States. The traditional UCR Summary Reporting System presents the number of criminal offenses known to police. The reported crime rate reflects only those offenses known as Part I crimes (violent crimes: murder, rape, robbery, and assault; property crimes: burglary, larceny, auto theft, and arson). A host of other offenses (i.e., fraud, kidnapping, and drug offenses), known as Part II crimes, are not included in the computations and reported crime rates. The resulting crime rates, therefore, reflect only a portion of the offenses with which the formal criminal justice system comes into contact.

According to the 2017 UCR, there were more than 8.9 million index crimes. Of that number, more than 1.2 million were personal crimes (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault), and almost 7.7 million were property offenses (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2019a). This translates into 2,785 index crimes for every 100,000 people in the United States (also known as the “crime rate”). The corresponding crime rates for personal and property crime are 382.9 and 2,362.2, respectively.

ON THE WEB

Detailed information on official crime numbers and rates from the UCR can be found at the FBI UCR site at https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017

The trend in violent and property crime since 1962 is shown in Figures 1.1 and 1.2. Figure 1.1 illustrates that the 2017 violent crime rate has fallen to the levels around 1970. Thus, it is a true claim that violent crime is lower today than at any time in almost 50 years. Similar claims can be made about property crime, although the reference point would be between 1965 and 1968 (see Figure 1.2). Figure 1.1 shows that the violent crime rate in 1962 was 162 offenses for every 100,000 persons. This was less than one-third of the rate in 1977 and roughly one-third of the rate in 1992. Similarly, the property crime rate in 1962 (1,858) was less than half of the 1971 rate and only about one-third of the 1980 property crime rate (Figure 1.2). The recent violent crime figures are still significantly higher than those of 45 years ago when society was lamenting the high crime it was facing. The property crime rate in 2017 is 27 percent higher than the rate in 1962, while the personal crime rate is roughly 136 percent higher. This suggests that those who point to the great strides made combating crime should be careful not to congratulate themselves too much.

Figure 1.1
Change in Violent Crime Rate (per 100,000 population)

Source: Constructed by the author from UCR data.

Figure 1.2
Change in Property Crime Rate (per 100,000 population)

Source: Constructed by the author from UCR data.

Although the UCR shows a large number of crimes are committed in the United States, it still comes under fire from a variety of sources for underreporting the actual level of crime in the country. O’Brien (1985) points out that concerns over the way the data are collected and how the police learn about crime lead many to question the validity of the results. Foremost among the concerns is the question of whether the police records and reports provide an unbiased, complete view of crime in society. Popular wisdom would answer this question with a resounding “No!” Examination of the UCR reveals three major points at which the UCR can be inaccurately adjusted.

First, the UCR is a voluntary system of data collection and police departments and police officers can adjust the figures if they want. Departments can adjust the figures to enhance the image of their operation and/or their jurisdiction. It may be in the best interests ...