Situational Crime Prevention (Essay Sample)

Background
Situational crime prevention is a term in the dictionary of criminologists. The term in essence aims to describe the different crime prevention strategies available for reducing any criminal opportunities that may avail themselves in person’s everyday life. Situational crime prevention one, aims at significantly or altogether reducing the opportunities for criminals to undertake criminal acts. Second, situational crime prevention aims at changing the mindset of criminals that they can get away with any crime they commit to realizing that in essence, they cannot and the law will catch up with them. Lastly, situational crime strives to make crime harder, riskier and even more so, less rewarding to commit (Siegel, (2008). In the impending discussion, a more in-depth analysis of situational crime prevention will follow. One, the discussion will encompass the strategies used in situational crime prevention. Two, the discussion will take a look at two theories, the social learning theory and the rational choice theory and their relation to situational crime prevention and criminal behavior in general. After an in-depth analysis of situational crime prevention, the discussion will turn to an aspect of situational crime prevention known as inducing guilt or shame. The discussion will give relevant literature on this aspect and show how guilt and shame relates to situational crime prevention. In conclusion, a summation of the key points to be found within the discussion will be highlighted.
Discussion
As aforementioned, situational crime prevention is a term coined by criminologists to describe the ways in which criminals are deterred from engaging in criminal acts (Siegel, (2008). Now before even a discussion can ensue on situational crime prevention and specifically the strategies used thereof, one begs to firstly question, the reasons as to why criminals engage in crime in the first place. What drives a person in society to commit a crime? This question can be answered through a look at two theories, often propelled in the field of criminology. These theories are the social learning theory and the rational choice theory.
The social learning theory is a theory which postulates that people pick up a new behavior by observing the social factors present in their surroundings. The theory in essence puts forth that when people observe certain behaviors from their environment, they are most likely to model and imitate those behaviors and ultimately, make those behaviors a part and parcel of their lives. When it comes to criminology, the social learning theory can also be applied and it was first done so by Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess in the year 1966. The two sought through the theory, to explain deviancy (Smith & Cornish, 2003). They did this by looking at variables that often encourage delinquency such as social pressure from peers and variables that discourage such acts, such as parental actions. The two concluded that when it comes to crime or delinquency, those who perform such acts learn them, and then they apply them to their own life. The social learning theory is normally in support of punishment to deter crime. One of the downfalls of this theory is that it does not take into account, the opportunistic nature of crime one of the facets of situational crime prevention. This means that the theory explains that behavior is learnt but does not specify where. Additionally, the theory explains how criminal behavior is transmitted from person to person but it does not take into consideration the ways in which to prevent crime (Smith & Cornish, 2003). Even so, the theory is a good explanation of the mindset behind criminals and criminal acts, and thus of importance to consider in this discussion.
The second theory under discussion is the rational choice theory. This theory rests on the premise that a person, with reason, normally weighs the ends, means, costs and benefits of an act and then makes a rational choice as to whether or not to commit the act. The theory is in high relation with situational crime prevention for it looks at the ways that the opportunities to commit crime can be reduced. The theory asserts that criminals normally act as a result of attractive opportunities e.g. like when they see a car window open. Hence with such opportunities, a criminal makes the rational choice to commit the crime after weighing all the aforementioned factors. This theory is another important facet of situational crime prevention.
Now it is important to conceptualize that situational crime prevention in most ways differs from routine criminology especially when it comes to its orientation. Instead of focusing on the criminal like most aspects of criminology normally do, situational crime prevention rather focuses on the opportunity for crime. In situational crime prevention, managerial and environmental type measures are applied in a bid to reduce the opportunities for criminals to commit a crime. In this way, situational crime prevention can be said to focus mainly on the settings in which crime occur. Furthermore, situational crime prevention aims to forestall a crime from taking place as opposed to detecting and sanctioning criminals (Siegel, (2008). Situational crime prevention in a nutshell aims at making criminal actions unattractive to criminals. Now, in order to do all the aforementioned, in a bid to try and deter criminals from committing crime, several strategies are usually implemented. These strategies include one, inputting surveillance in areas where criminals are prone to act e.g. television surveillance. A second strategy is that of hardening of potential targets in a bid to make crime harder for the criminal. Target hardening is an environmental form of situational crime prevention and examples include: security lighting, installation of burglar alarms and the likes (Siegel, 2008). A third strategy normally used by criminologists is target removal and an example of such includes organizations which only take credit cards instead of cash. This way, criminals have no cash to steal. A fourth strategy is that of alerting consciences, and an example of such is putting up road side cameras, which scout for potential criminals. When criminals see such devices, they are less likely to commit the crime. A fifth and last strategy for this discussion includes that of making compliance much easier. This for example can include installing litter bins in parks or streets. Compliance can be made easier and thus criminals much more likely deterred from their criminal ways (Felson, 2009). A factor to keep in mind in all this is that most of these crimes occur in social setting, and as seen from the theory such as the social learning theory, peer pressure from other persons is key. Thus, creating an environment that deters crime by reducing pressure is of chief importance.
Another important aspect of situational crime prevention is that of inducing guilt or shame. This just like the others just aforementioned is a strategy that was founded in another bid to prevent crime. This facet of situational crime prevention is all about the possibility of feeling guilty when one thinks about undertaking an act that is morally not right (Felson, 2009). Additionally, it is about the threat of the shame and embarrassment that will ensue after a morally wrong act is revealed to members of society. For a person to commit a morally wrong act, they must then really evaluate the consequences in terms of the psychological and social discomfort that might arise in that act. There are those persons however who normally given the right social atmosphere, will not premeditate upon the consequences of guilty feelings and shame and therefore, go ahead to carry out their acts anyway (Wakefield, 2000). In order for one to have those feelings of guilt and shame that come with performing a morally wrong act, the person must have a moral commitment to the law. The strategy of inducing guilt and shame in a person who is contemplating a morally wrong act can be a strong deterrence to the carrying out of such an act and thus, this strategy has been employed by ...