Gloria Laycock

Implementing Crime Prevention

Situational crime prevention is increasingly proving its worth in crime control, but crime rates in many countries continue to rise. Existing small-scale, but effective, measures should be more widely duplicated. There is a need at all levels to identify mechanisms that will lead to more widespread implementation of situational approaches. Legislative mandates and publicity exhortation can be used, but the demonstration to those with the authority to act that situational measures result in cost savings may be more effective. A prerequisite of such a demonstration is the availability of good data and their analysis. This points to a considerable training task and the need to introduce criminological theory and good research and evaluation practice to those with the authority and responsibility to take action against crime.

Joining up Research, Policy and Practice about Crime

Evidence-based policy in relation to crime, as in other policy areas, is all the rage. It looks like plain common sense. Yet getting good evidence to policy and policy to good evidence faces an uphill struggle. Ideology is important in any consideration of crime and crime policy, limiting the potential of hard evidence. Common sense ideas about crime are also powerful influences on policy, and they are not easily overturned by research evidence, which may contradict them. Even where there is space for research to impact on policy and practice, it can easily mislead, if treated uncritically and unreflectively. Much research is technically weak. Single studies that appear to be methodologically sound can generate findings that subsequent investigations contradict. Programmes shown by evaluation studies to work in one context may not work in another. It is often not clear what it is about a programme which has worked and hence what needs to be replicated to produce the same effects. Yet, there are examples of studies, and series of studies, yielding valid and useable policy-relevant findings. Examples relating to property marking and to repeat victimization and its prevention are given. Ways in which members of the policy-making and research communities can facilitate the appropriate production and use of evidence in policy-development and practice are suggested. More generally, evidence-based policy calls for a more policy-literate research community, and a more research-literate policy community. Policy-making, however, can and should be informed by more than research evidence alone.

Crime science: editorial statement

Imagine criminally active drug addicts or repeat offenders stealing from cars or houses. Do you think these criminals check the stock market before committing an offence? The vast majority of active offenders do not own shares and therefore do not need to keep up to date with the Dow Jones index. However, Sidebottom et al (2011) demonstrate a very close relationship between monthly ups and downs of the copper price as traded on the London Metal Exchange with the extent of theft of copper from the UK railway system. Apparently, although copper thieves may not have been aware of the metal exchange dealings, their behavior reflected the price of the copper on the official market to a remarkable extent. Researchers in Australia found similar results with respect to petrol (Moffatt & Fitzgerald, 2006) but in this case the petrol theft tracks the price of petrol at the pumps. At a time when the life sciences discover more and more about the genetic foundation of antisocial behavior (Moffitt, 2005; Rhee & Waldman, 2002) it is also important to remember that simple but powerful economic incentives such as the market price of specific goods drive theft up and down. These market prices are one aspect of the environment in which we all live and work. Price is an element of the macro-economic environment that, as shown, has a strong impact on crime. In addition to this, many other types of situational factors can play an important role. The design of physical space is one such factor. For example, Breetzke (2012) found that suburbs at greater altitudes in Tshwane (South Africa) were consistently found to have lower burglary rates. What could be the potential mechanisms explaining this relationship? A possible explanation is that altitude is linked to road structure, and that places at higher altitude are less easily accessible and are therefore less familiar to offenders. Consequently they are less likely to be the focus of burglary. Australian research has identified the management and layout of pubs and bars can predict alcohol-fuelled violence (Graham & Homer, 2008).

Helping Aged Victims of Crime (the HAVoC Study): Common Crime, Older People and Mental Illness.

BACKGOUND Limited data suggest that crime may have a devastating impact on older people. Although identification and treatment may be beneficial, no well-designed studies have investigated the prevalence of mental disorder and the potential benefits of individual manualized CBT in older victims of crime. AIMS To identify mental health problems in older victims of common crime, provide preliminary data on its prevalence, and conduct a feasibility randomized controlled trial (RCT) using mixed methods. METHOD Older victims, identified through police teams, were screened for symptoms of anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) one (n = 581) and 3 months (n = 486) after experiencing a crime. Screen positive participants were offered diagnostic interviews. Of these, 26 participants with DSM-IV diagnoses agreed to be randomized to Treatment As Usual (TAU) or TAU plus our manualized CBT informed Victim Improvement Package (VIP). The latter provided feedback on the VIP. RESULTS Recruitment, assessment and intervention are feasible and acceptable. At 3 months 120/486 screened as cases, 33 had DSM-IV criteria for a psychiatric disorder; 26 agreed to be randomized to a pilot trial. There were trends in favour of the VIP in all measures except PTSD at 6 months post crime. CONCLUSIONS This feasibility RCT is the first step towards improving the lives of older victims of common crime. Without intervention, distress at 3 and 6 months after a crime remains high. However, the well-received VIP appeared promising for depressive and anxiety symptoms, but possibly not posttraumatic stress disorder.

Editorial introduction to 'Opportunity makes the thief. Really? And so what?'

Crime Science is premised on the assumption that opportunities cause crime. For the reasons set out by Clarke (2012) it is to some a contentious statement and would almost certainly be seen as counter-intuitive by many members of the general public. It is also a powerful statement and the editorial team felt it fitting that the first substantive article in the new journal should make this point clear. In blocking opportunities for crime and terrorism we are not simply reducing the incidence, we are also removing one of the causes. For example, if it were easy to take a bomb on an aircraft then many more aircraft would explode. Making it difficult, as we do, reduces the number of bombs on aircraft and also reduces the number of motivated offenders out there prepared to act as terrorists. They do not all simply commit some other terrorist act instead; in other words the terrorism is not just displaced it is reduced. And the same effects are seen in relation to most other crimes. The article is unusual in being an amended version of a talk by Professor Ronald V Clarke given to launch an edited book published in his honor. Although as Ronald Clarke says, much of the work described was done in collaboration with colleagues or by colleagues themselves, he was the inspiration for it. The importance of opportunity as a cause of crime is a central issue in crime science. It opens the door to the vast array of sciences playing a part in crime control and the reduction of terrorism. Science can influence crime control in at least four ways: First, it can help us to understand the nature of crime, usually drawing on the social sciences like criminology and psychology; secondly, through the science inspired technologies, it can help to prevent crimes from happening in the first place; thirdly, it can assist the detection of offending through the forensic sciences and finally it provides us with the methods that help to test hypotheses about the opportunities that

Science in the Context of International Crime Control

This paper is based upon a series of presentations given at Michigan State University as the 2006 Dae Chang International Visiting Scholar. It is not, therefore, a ‘normal’ journal article describing a particular study or review. Rather, it aims to make the case for a more systematic consideration of the role of science and technology in international crime control —not only in relation to our general understanding of crime, but also in developing techniques for its prevention and detection. In doing so, it draws, for illustration, upon a small international study funded by ADT Alarms as part of its thought leadership programme. The study provides one example of the kind of developments in international crime research of which, the paper argues, there is a need for more.

Preventing Crime in the United Arab Emirates

This paper briefly considers the crime problem in the United Arab Emirates and outlines attempts from 2010-early 2013 to introduce problem oriented policing in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the UAE. Although the work met with limited success it is suggested that there may be a number of lessons of use to those attempting to introduce similar approaches in relatively new States.

Repeat victimization: Introduction

Repeat victimization (rv) occurs when a person or place is repeatedly targeted for crime or disorder. It is fair to say that the realisation by practitioners and researchers of the extent of rv, and its significance as a focus for crime prevention, has been rather late. There is, however, a growing realisation of the need for practical responses to support repeat victims and the associated need to improve policy. In the three papers of this group of articles different aspects of repeat victimization are discussed. 1 Repeat victimization exists in many crime types, e.g. burglary (domestic and commercial), school bullying, assault, credit card fraud, retail crime, obscene phone calls, theft of and from vehicles, vandalism, sexual assaults, racial attacks, hate crimes, neighbour disputes, stalking and domestic violence. Protecting repeat victims is, therefore, a very plausible approach to reducing crime and there is increasing evidence that crime rates can indeed be reduced by preventing repeat events (Farrell and Pease, 2000). This has been evidenced in a number of crime prevention projects (see for instance, Forrester et al., 1990; Hanmer et al., 1999). In the light of this research evidence the England and Wales Home Office has been developing rv policies and investing in demonstration projects for some years (Laycock, 2001). One such project, aimed at reducing domestic violence, was based in the Killingbeck Division of West Yorkshire Police in the UK. Max