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