Leanne Monchuk

Gang Member: Who Says? Definitional and Structural Issues

Owing to a number of high-profile shootings in the UK over the past decade, there has been a significant amount of media and political interest in youth gangs. This chapter reports on a study conducted in 2009 in a large city in the North of England. It discusses the structure and formation of gangs in this city from the view of the young people identified as gang members and those responsible for this identification, i.e., police officers. Findings demonstrated that few of the young people viewed themselves as belonging to a gang; indeed, many were scathing of such an attribution, contesting its applicability. A more accurate description of these young people is of a rather loose and fluid, interlinked but informal social network of friends and associates. There was evidence that the authorities’ labeling of some young people as gang members and adoption and use of gang names attributed coherence and identity to what was often only fluid and transitional youth group formations. This may have created the very circumstances it sought to challenge.

The way forward in designing out crime? Greater Manchester police design for security consultancy

Purpose – Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) aims to make the built environment less vulnerable to crime and disorder through its design. CPTED is applied in practice by Architectural Liaison Officers/Crime Prevention Design Advisors employed within each police force in England and Wales. Their aim is to advise built environment professionals (architects and planners) how opportunities for crime and disorder can be minimised through the design of a development without compromising on the design quality. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of relevant literature and an example of one forces promising, but as yet unevaluated, approach to embedding CPTED early in the planning process.Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a case study approach and outlines how Greater Manchester Police Design for Security Consultancy (GMP DFSC) liaise with built environment professionals in an attempt to design out opportunities for crime and disorder to occur at the pre‐planning st...

The prevalence of youth racially motivated offending: What do we really know?

This article reports on research conducted for the Youth Justice Board (YJB) which sought to establish the prevalence of racially motivated offending (RMO) amongst young people and the level of provision for such offenders. The article examines trends in youth RMO over the period 2002-2007 and explores the characteristics of offenders, geographical trends of RMO and sanctioning outcomes. Analysis demonstrates that of those young people referred to youth offending service (YOS) teams for RMO, the vast majority were male and white. There was a noticeable ‘North-South’ split in RMO, with levels in the North generally higher than in the South and sanctions for racially motivated offences were more severe than for offences generally. The paper calls for further investigation into the legislation and practice around youth RMO.

Current responses to youth racially motivated offending

This article presents the findings from a study for the Youth Justice Board (YJB) to identify the prevalence of racially motivated offending (RMO) amongst young people and Youth Justice System responses to it. The article focuses on programmes for RMO and presents the findings of a survey of Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) and secure establishments to establish the extent of provision for RMO, along with interviews with practitioners and young people. The findings demonstrate the majority of provision is multifaceted but also ad hoc and does not address the evidence on the causes of RMO. The multiplicity of causes needs to be reflected in the interventions designed to tackle it.

Is It Just a Guessing Game? The Application of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) to Predict Burglary

ABSTRACT Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) aims to reduce crime through the design of the built environment. Designing out crime officers (DOCOs) are responsible for the delivery of CPTED by assessing planning applications, identifying criminogenic design features and offering remedial advice. Twenty-eight experienced DOCOs from across England and Wales assessed the site plan for one residential development (which had been built a decade earlier) and identified crime risk locations. Predictions of likely locations were compared with 4 years’ police recorded crime data. DOCOs are, to varying extents, able to identify locations which experienced higher levels of crime and disorder. However, they varied widely in the number of locations in which they anticipated burglary would occur.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) and retail crime: Exploring offender perspectives on risk and protective factors in the design and layout of retail environments.

There is little doubt that the design of the built environment influences offender decision-making. Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a crime reduction approach that aims to prevent crime though the design (pre-build) or manipulation (post-build) of the built environment. CPTED is based upon a set of principles that include movement control, surveillance, defensible space and physical security, and research (see Armitage, Crime Prevention Through Housing Design: Policy and Practice. Crime Prevention and Security Management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013 for overview) has demonstrated the effectiveness of CPTED in reducing crimes such as burglary within the residential environment. This research explores the extent to which CPTED (and other design related) measures can be used to reduce shoplifting within a retail environment—namely two major supermarket chains in England. The results reveal that the principles of CPTED are relevant within the retail environment and that offenders are deterred by these features, in particular, where these principles result in an immediate (as opposed to delayed) detection or apprehension. Whilst the research is conducted in supermarkets within England, the conclusions are internationally relevant and can be transferred to many different retail environments.