Situational prevention and public transport crime in El Salvador

By any standard, there is a serious problem of crime on the public transport system in El Salvador. Guided by crime opportunity theory, this study undertook a rapid assessment of the problem consisting of a systematic observation of public transport in El Salvador and focus group discussions with passengers, bus operators, police and bus company owners/managers. The purposes were (1) to describe the main forms of crime and disorder afflicting the system, (2) to identify features of the system that contribute to the high levels of crime and disorder, and (3) to identify preventive measures, consistent with international experience. A program of situational crime prevention measures was identified which consisted of two main kinds: (1) measures relating to the operations of the bus system as a whole, intended to help to create a more orderly and secure transport environment and, (2) more specific measures designed to reduce opportunities for crimes occurring on buses or at bus stops, such as homicides, robberies, and sexual assaults on women. Future research and implementation of the preventive measures are discussed

Can burglary prevention be low-carbon and effective? Investigating the environmental performance of burglary prevention measures

There has been limited study to date on the environmental impacts of crime prevention measures. We address this shortfall by estimating the carbon footprint associated with the most widely used burglary prevention measures: door locks, window locks, burglar alarms, lighting and CCTV cameras. We compare these footprints with a measure of their effectiveness, the security protection factor, allowing us to identify those measures that are both low-carbon and effective in preventing burglary. Window locks are found to be the most effective and low-carbon measure available individually. Combinations of window locks, door locks, external and indoor lightings are also shown to be effective and low-carbon. Burglar alarms and CCTV do not perform as strongly, with low security against burglary and higher carbon footprints. This information can be used to help inform more sustainable choices of burglary prevention within households as well as for crime prevention product design

In and around: identifying predictors of theft within and near to major mass underground transit systems

This article identifies factors that encourage or reduce pick-pocketing at underground rail stations through a case study analysis of the London Underground. Negative binomial Poisson regression models found predictor variables of pick-pocketing selected from the internal characteristics of stations and features of their nearby surroundings. Factors that increased risk were those associated with greater congestion inside stations including lifts, waiting rooms and fewer platforms; and increased levels of accessibility near stations, more paths and roads. Features that reduced risk were those likely to encourage detection and guardianship; stations with more personal validators, staffing levels and shop rentals; and the presence of more domestic buildings nearby. Station type was also influential; those that were ‘attractors’ of crime and those frequently used by tourists were at greater risk. The findings suggest a transmission of theft risk between the internal settings of underground stations and their nearby surroundings

Examining the demographic profile and attitudes of citizens, in areas where organised crime groups proliferate

Whilst studies refer to the community impact of Organized Crime (OC), no survey currently exists to examine the views of those citizens who reside in areas where Organized Crime Groups (OCGs) proliferate. 431 questionnaires from households co-existing in high density OCGs areas were analysed in relation to: a) demographic information; b) views on the community and the police; and c) how they expected other residents to react to illegal incidents. Overall respondents thought the average citizen would refuse to intervene in 10% - 48% of illegal incidents, with the specific case influencing whether and how they would respond. The analysis then compared three communities who lived in high density OCG areas with a control community (n=343). The ‘OCG’ communities were more likely to report low collective efficacy and were least likely to expect their neighbours to confront a crime in action. Conversely, whilst the control group showed higher levels of collective efficacy and expected the average resident more likely to confront illegal behaviour, this trend did not extend to street drug dealing and serious crime associated with OC. The study discusses the unreported intimidation associated with OCGs and the challenges of policing hostile environments

Persuasion architectures: Consumer spaces, affective engineering and (criminal) harm

Drawing together recent theoretical work from both within and beyond criminology, this article considers the role of strategically designed consumer spaces in eliciting potentially criminogenic and harmful dispositions and behaviours. First, the article introduces recent work in cultural geography and urban studies, which has drawn attention to the manipulation of affect through spatial design. Second, by way of example, the article considers how such strategies are deployed in three types of consumer environments: shopping malls and retail spaces; casinos and other gambling environments; and the so-called night time economy. Third, the article engages such developments theoretically. It is suggested we rethink the distinctions and interrelationships between human subjectivity and agency and the built environment. The implications of this proposed conceptual reorientation are explored – first, for our understandings of agency, intentionality, moral responsibility and political accountability; and second, for criminological thinking around embodied difference, power and exclusio

Crime, Policing and Compliance with the Law

Social scientific research has made a very substantial contribution to specialist academic understanding of crime and its control. This chapter sketches out that contribution that has been made in three areas: our understanding of crime trends; our knowledge of policing and its effects of crime; and the factors that encourage people to comply with the law. The ways in which practitioners and academics think about these issues has been transformed over the last half-century, and social scientific research is a significant factor in achieving this transformation. However, the same research has achieved a much more tenuous hold on political and public discourse about crime, and the chapter concludes with a discussion of the reasons for this, and offers some thoughts on how social science should aim to extend its reach into highly politicised issues such as “law and order”

Confessions of a recovering 'administrative criminologist': Jock Young, quantitative research and policy research

This article examines two phases of Jock Young’s work: first, in the 1980s when he was using quantitative criminological techniques in support of his Left Realist agenda; and second, in 2011 when he was offering an exuberant critique of quantitative methods. I consider these two separate and contrasting phases of his work from the viewpoint of someone whom Jock would have seen as an ‘administrative criminologist’ in the 1980s and more recently as a ‘datasaur’. I offer some counterarguments in support of quantitative methods, on the one hand, and in harnessing these methods to policy research, on the other. My criticisms of his impact are not intended to detract from the overall value of his work, which was immense

Environmental criminology and the potential for reducing opportunities for bushfire arson

Since the 1980s, the incidence of wildfires (forest fires), across the World has significantly increased (Jensen) and climate change has been implicated in this trend (UNEP). In recent years, major wild fires have occurred in the United States, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Latin America, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Iran, Russia and most recently, in Israel. In Australia, wildfires or forest fires are known as bushfires, and approximately 60 000 occur each year. Only 6 per cent are ‘natural fires’, while 90 per cent are the result of people's actions. Significantly, deliberate ignitions; incendiary (maliciously lit fires) and suspicious fires account for 50 per cent of known fire causes (Bryant). Internationally, research in the field of bushfire arson prevention is currently dominated by offender-based approaches, which largely rely on incomplete and limited insights from a minority (less than 1 per cent) of arsonists who have been apprehended (Ogloff Tomison and Jones). This article explores how theories from environmental criminology can be used to understand and analyse place-based factors associated with deliberately lit bushfires. It also presents findings from a recent workshop conducted at the Australian Symposium on Bushfire Arson Prevention in order to further contextualise the relevance of environmental criminology to the analysis and reduction of bushfire arson