Prevention

Any organizational activity aimed at keeping unlawful behavior from occurring or keeping such behavior to a minimum and avoiding intervention

Prevention in general Primary, secondary, tertiary

Difficulty of evaluating prevention Correlational If nothing happens, was it because of

prevention. Tiger prevention Secular drift Resistance of politicians, public, etc.

Theories

Deterrence Biological explanations (genetics, health

care, diet) Psychological characteristics:

aggression, hyperactivity, impulsivity, intelligence, moral development

Theories

Sociological Differential association, social/self

control Ecological Strain, opportunity, middle class

measuring rod Economics, relative deprivation

Theories

Conflict

Crime prevention study

University of Maryland Rated studies on such aspects as Control of other variables Statistical power Research design: Correlations, temporal sequence,

comparisons, random assignment and comparisons

Study

Evaluation of history, chance factors, selection bias

Evaluated studies and examined results What works, what doesn’t work, what’s

promising

What doesn’t work

Gun buyback programs Community mobilization in high crime

inner city areas Home visits by police to couples after

domestic violence Individual and peer counseling of

students

What doesn’t work

DARE Summer jobs for at-risk youths School-based leisure time enrichment

programs Short term nonresidential training

programs

What doesn’t work

Neighborhood watch, esp. in high crime areas where voluntary participation needed

Arrests of juveniles for minor offenses (backfires)

Arrests of unemployed suspects for domestic assault

What doesn’t work

Increased raids on drug markets Storefront police officers Correctional boot camps Scared Straight Shock sentences Home detention and EM for low-risk

offenders

What doesn’t work

ISP General counseling of offenders Residential programs for juvenile

offenders in rural settings (outward bound, etc)

What works

Frequent home visits to infants Preschool and weekly home visits by

teachers to children under 5 Family therapy and parent training

about delinquent and at-risk preadolescents

What works

Clarifying and communicating norms about behavior through rules and schoolwide initiatives (such as antibullying campaigns) in schools

Life Skills Training programs, teaching such skills to youths as stress management, problem-solving, self-control

What works

Training in thinking skills to high-risk youths

Ex-offender job training for old males Nuisance abatement (threatening civil

action against landlords for not addressing drug dealing and crime on premises)

What works

Extra police patrols in high crime hot spots

Repeat offender units Arresting domestic abusers if they are

employed Incarceration of repeat offenders who

will continue to commit crimes

What works

Rehabilitation programs for offenders using treatments appropriate to their risk factors

Therapeutic community programs in prisons

What’s promising

Gang offender monitoring Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America Community based afterschool

recreation programs Battered women’s shelters seems to

work if the women take further steps School within schools

What’s promising

Job Corps Prison-based vocational education

programs in the federal prisons Dispersing inner-city public housing

residents to scattered suburban public housing (reduced crime, high school dropout and parental unemployment

What’s promising

Enterprise zones with tax-break incentives in areas of high unemployment

What’s promising: deterrence

2nd clerk in already robbed convenience stores

Redesigning layout of retail stores to reduce shoplifting

Training and management of bar staff reduces tavern violence and accidents

Metal detectors in schools reduce weapon carrying (although not assaults)

What’s promising

Airport metal detectors Sky marshals Street closures, barricades and

rerouting Target hardening Problem-solving analysis addressed to

the specific crime situation

What’s promising

Arrests for carrying unauthorized concealed weapons

Community policing reduces community perceptions of crime severity

Polite Field interrogations of suspicious persons

Higher numbers of police officers (some cities)

What’s promising

Drug courts Drug treatment in jails followed by urine

testing in the community Intensive supervision and aftercare of

minor juvenile offenses (runaways, truants) reduced future offending for first time offenders (but not multiple)

What’s promising

Intensive supervision and aftercare of serious juvenile offenders

Fines Day fines for technical violations