8. How do we prevent crime?

It is often assumed that the criminal justice system is crucial in determining crime levels, but the available evidence does not bear this out. In fact, it is the processes of socialization underpinned and reinforced by informal social control that play a vital role in controlling crime. ‘How do we prevent crime?’ considers the various crime prevention techniques that have contributed substantially to recent apparent reductions in crime. It describes the distinction between social crime prevention, which tends to focus on fairly broad and deep issues, and situational crime prevention, which is narrower in focus, is pre-emptive, and seeks, through a variety of means, to reduce the opportunities for crime.

7. How do we control crime?

‘How do we control crime?’ discusses the formal and less formal means thought to control crime. The formal means refer to the use of the criminal justice system: the police, courts, and prison system. Arising from what we know to be the limitations of organized criminal justice in relation to crime control, the less formal means to control crime are considered as the processes of socialization, whereby social norms and values are learned, reinforced by what is often referred to as informal social control. Recent trends in the use of punishment, from incarceration in prisons to the use of non-custodial, community-based penalties are also discussed.

6. Understanding the crime drop

‘Understanding the crime drop’ explains that the downward trend has not been confined to particular countries. Nor is it a short-term blip, but has been sustained over a significant period of time, even during periods of great economic turbulence. There is no simple explanation for the rise or fall of crime. It is a combination of factors, including matters of political economy, social inequality, changes in our routine activities, and, more recently, greater attention given to security and crime prevention, which most likely explains the observed trends. However, the role of the Internet is also explored. Do our main measures of crime underestimate just how much crime is taking place?

5. Understanding recent trends in crime

What is happening to crime? Are things getting better or worse, and in what ways? ‘Understanding recent trends in crime’ examines recorded crime trends and data from victimization surveys from America, Canada, England and Wales, and Australia. All four Western democracies display similar patterns: rising crime in the post-war years, hitting a peak somewhere between the late 1980s and late 1990s, then falling steeply for the fifteen‒twenty-five years since. This leaves two big questions: why did crime increase in the early decades after the Second World War; and, why has it been declining in the past fifteen‒twenty-five years? The reasons for the post-war crime explosion are discussed.

2. What is crime?

‘What is crime?’ considers the definitions of crime. Should the focus be simply on violations of legal codes or should we extend it to violations of moral and social codes? The relativity of crime is also discussed: not everything that was once criminal remains so, and vice versa, and not everything considered criminal in one place is treated as criminal everywhere else. Is criminal justice effective? Through the process of criminal justice, criminals are constructed, but asking questions about what and who becomes labelled as a ‘crime’ or a ‘criminal’ necessarily invites one to contemplate the importance of power. Who makes the rules? Who do the rules affect, or protect?

9. Where next for criminology?

Criminology’s concerns already encompass matters of sociology, psychology, law, political science, economics, history, and biology to name a few. Essentially, criminology’s focus remains those forms of human conduct we treat as criminal or deviant, or which produce such harms that intervention is argued to be necessary. ‘Where next for criminology?’ suggests that the swiftly changing nature of the world we inhabit poses huge challenges for criminologists that cannot be ignored: globalization, the increasingly complex and transnational nature of economic authority, the growing voluntary and forced movement of peoples across borders, the spreading power and influence of the Internet and new communication technologies, and the profound risks posed by environmental change.

3. Who commits crime?

‘Who commits crime?’ explains that most of us break the law at some point in our lives, albeit with fairly minor offences. Data from the criminal justice system and self-reporting show that men commit more crimes than women, and most offending is committed by the young. Some minority ethnic groups appear to have higher offending rates than others, though it seems likely that some combination of socio-economic inequality and the way in which the criminal justice and penal systems work holds the key to explaining much of the difference. The crimes committed by the wealthy and those of higher social status as well as of corporations are also considered.

1. Introducing criminology

‘Introducing criminology’ explains that according to American criminologist, Edwin Sutherland, criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon including within its scope the process of making and breaking laws, and reacting to the breaking of laws. Criminology dates back to the late 18th century when small groups of people developed an interest in explaining crime alongside their main occupations such as running asylums or collecting statistics on prisons or court proceedings. There was no form of collective enterprise until the end of the 19th century. During the 20th century, ‘criminology’ gradually formed and solidified. Its constitutive disciplines include sociology, history, psychology, law, and statistics.

4. How do we measure crime?

‘How do we measure crime?’ considers the two main measures that are generally used for counting crime—information from law enforcement bodies and victimization surveys—looking at the pros and cons of different approaches and outlining a series of provisos or caveats. Law enforcement statistics do not include all crimes, they are not consistent, not all crime is reported, and not all reported crime is recorded. Despite crime surveys indicating that fewer than one in two crimes are reported to law enforcement, it is thought that they also under-report. Other issues with crime surveys concern their sampling procedures and targeting of individuals only and not businesses.