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Environmental criminology focuses on criminal patterns within particular built environments and analyzes the impacts of these external variables on people's cognitive behavior. It forms a part of criminology's Positivist School in that it applies the scientific method to examine the society that causes crime.
Environmental criminology is the study of crime, criminality, and victimization as they relate, first, to particular places, and secondly, to the way that individuals and organizations shape their activities spatially, and in so doing are in turn influenced by place-based or spatial factors.
In 1971, C. Ray Jeffery published "Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design", in which he examined the role that immediate environments play in crime and suggested a range of strategies for reducing crime by modifying immediate environments. He also coined the term "environmental criminology".
Within fifteen years of the publication of Jeffery’s book, most of the seminal approaches of environmental criminology had appeared, with later developments largely building on these foundations.
One such environmental criminology approach was developed in the 1980s, by Paul and Patricia Brantingham, putting focus of criminological study on environmental or context factors that can influence criminal activity. These include space (geography), time, law, offender, and target or victim. These five components are a necessary and sufficient condition, for without one, the other four, even together, will not constitute a criminal incident. [1] Despite the obvious multi-faceted nature of crime, scholars and practitioners often attempt to study them separately. For instance, lawyers and political scientists focus on the legal dimension; sociologists, psychologists and civil rights groups generally look to the offenders and victims, while geographers concentrate upon the location of the event. Environmental criminologists examine the place and the time when the crime happened. They are interested in land usage, traffic patterns and street design, and the daily activities and movements of victims and offenders. Environmental criminologists often use maps to look for crime patterns, for example, using metric topology. [2]
The study of the spatial patterns of crime and criminality has a long history. In the Chicago School, Robert Ezra Park, Ernest Burgess, and other urban sociologists developed the concentric zones model, and considered geographic factors in study of juvenile delinquency.
Geography was also considered in law enforcement, through use of large pin maps to show where crime incidents occurred. Mapping and analysis of crime is now entering a new phase with the use of computerized crime mapping systems by the police and researchers, with environmental criminology theories playing an important part in how crime patterns are understood. Crime mapping technology allows law enforcement to collect data that will pinpoint the geography of crime incidents within a geographical area. This technique has proven to be very useful when it comes to informing officers of the location of a crime, making resource assignment decisions, assessing interventions, informing communities about crime activity, and identifying where calls are coming from in an area. [3] Other practical applications of environmental criminology theory include geographic profiling, which is premised on the idea that criminals take into account geographic factors in deciding where to commit crimes. [4]
Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) is another practical application, based on the title of Jeffery's earlier publication, promotes the idea that situational factors such as the environment (poor lighting or design of circulation spaces [5] ) can make crime more likely to occur at a particular time and place. CPTED measures to reduce the likelihood can include added lighting, making the place less conducive for crime.
Concentrated areas of high level of crime, known as crime hot spots, may have situational factors that help explain why the particular place is a problem. Could be that the place is poorly supervised, has poor "place management", has poor lighting or other characteristics. Changing some of those situational factors may help reduce levels of crime in that place.
The Routine Activity Theory was developed by Marcus Felson and Lawrence E. Cohen in the late 1970's. Unlike other theories concerning crime, The Routine Activity Theory studies crime as an event that relates to the crimes environment and ecological process that happened.
During and after World War II, when states were expanding crime was raising significantly due to areas society was making. Therefore, making certain places easy access for crime. Automobiles were booming, making it easier to get around. It enables criminals to be able to go and pursue crime. Social changes in society, much like college, urbanization, suburbanization, lifestyles, and woman working are big contributors to environmental crime.
The broken windows theory is the idea that there is importance to disorder when it comes to assisting and generating crime. General disorder leads to fear from a community, which allows for more crime to be committed because of decreased social control. In other words, an un-fixed broken window will ultimately lead to more broken windows. Smaller problems such as drugs or gangs in a community that are not being actively taken care of by the police cause people to leave these areas out of fear. As the area becomes scarcer in population, the crime will progressively become more serious. [6]
Geographic profiling is a criminal investigative methodology that analyzes the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most probable area of offender residence. By incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods, it assists in understanding spatial behaviour of an offender and focusing the investigation to a smaller area of the community. Typically used in cases of serial murder or rape, the technique helps police detectives prioritize information in large-scale major crime investigations that often involve hundreds or thousands of suspects and tips.
Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) is an agenda for manipulating the built environment to create safer neighborhoods.
Crime mapping is used by analysts in law enforcement agencies to map, visualize, and analyze crime incident patterns. It is a key component of crime analysis and the CompStat policing strategy. Mapping crime, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), allows crime analysts to identify crime hot spots, along with other trends and patterns.
Articles related to criminology and law enforcement.
Crime science is the study of crime in order to find ways to prevent it. It is distinguished from criminology in that it is focused on how crime is committed and how to reduce it, rather than on who committed it. It is multidisciplinary, notably recruiting scientific methodology rather than relying on social theory.
Right realism, in criminology, also known as New Right Realism, Neo-Classicism, Neo-Positivism, or Neo-Conservatism, is the ideological polar opposite of left realism. It considers the phenomenon of crime from the perspective of political conservatism and asserts that it takes a more realistic view of the causes of crime and deviance, and identifies the best mechanisms for its control. Unlike the other schools of criminology, there is less emphasis on developing theories of causality in relation to crime and deviance. The school employs a rationalist, direct and scientific approach to policy-making for the prevention and control of crime. Some politicians who subscribe to the perspective may address aspects of crime policy in ideological terms by referring to freedom, justice, and responsibility. For example, they may be asserting that individual freedom should only be limited by a duty not to use force against others. This, however, does not reflect the genuine quality in the theoretical and academic work and the real contribution made to the nature of criminal behaviour by criminologists of the school.
The feminist school of criminology is a school of criminology developed in the late 1960s and into the 1970s as a reaction to the general disregard and discrimination of women in the traditional study of crime. It is the view of the feminist school of criminology that a majority of criminological theories were developed through studies on male subjects and focused on male criminality, and that criminologists often would "add women and stir" rather than develop separate theories on female criminality.
In criminology, rational choice theory adopts a utilitarian belief that humans are reasoning actors who weigh means and ends, costs and benefits, in order to make a rational choice. This method was designed by Cornish and Clarke to assist in thinking about situational crime prevention.
Crime prevention is the attempt to reduce and deter crime and criminals. It is applied specifically to efforts made by governments to reduce crime, enforce the law, and maintain criminal justice.
The defensible space theory of architect and city planner Oscar Newman encompasses ideas about crime prevention and neighborhood safety. Newman argues that architectural and environmental design plays a crucial part in increasing or reducing criminality. The theory developed in the early 1970s, and he wrote his first book on the topic, Defensible Space, in 1972. The book contains a study from New York that pointed out that higher crime rate existed in high-rise housing projects than in low-rise complexes. This, he concluded, was because residents felt no control or personal responsibility for an area occupied by so many people. Throughout his study, Newman focused on explaining his ideas on social control, crime prevention, and public health in relation to community design.
Routine activity theory is a sub-field of crime opportunity theory that focuses on situations of crimes. It was first proposed by Marcus Felson and Lawrence E. Cohen in their explanation of crime rate changes in the United States between 1947 and 1974. The theory has been extensively applied and has become one of the most cited theories in criminology. Unlike criminological theories of criminality, routine activity theory studies crime as an event, closely relates crime to its environment and emphasizes its ecological process, thereby diverting academic attention away from mere offenders.
Criminology is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behavioural and social sciences, which draws primarily upon the research of sociologists, political scientists, economists, legal sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, psychiatrists, social workers, biologists, social anthropologists, scholars of law and jurisprudence, as well as the processes that define administration of justice and the criminal justice system.
Crime hotspots are areas that have high crime intensity. These are usually visualized using a map. They are developed for researchers and analysts to examine geographic areas in relation to crime. Researchers and theorists examine the occurrence of hotspots in certain areas and why they happen, and analysts examine the techniques used to perform the research. Developing maps that contain hotspots are becoming a critical and influential tool for policing; they help develop knowledge and understanding of different areas in a city and possibly why crime occurs there.
Studies have been made of the "hunting patterns" of serial offenders, mainly serial killers and those committing repeated sex crimes. By hunting patterns are meant the interaction of time, space, and activity of a serial offender's criminal behavior. The attempt is made to ascribe rational motives to the offender's choice of places and times; investigators may invoke routine activity theory and rational choice theory in relation to the location of crimes.
Crime displacement is the relocation of crime as a result of police crime-prevention efforts. Crime displacement has been linked to problem-oriented policing, but it may occur at other levels and for other reasons. Community-development efforts may be a reason why criminals move to other areas for their criminal activity. The idea behind displacement is that when motivated criminal offenders are deterred, they will commit crimes elsewhere. Geographic police initiatives include assigning police officers to specific districts so they become familiar with residents and their problems, creating a bond between law-enforcement agencies and the community. These initiatives complement crime displacement, and are a form of crime prevention. Experts in the area of crime displacement include Kate Bowers, Rob T. Guerette, and John E. Eck.
Crime opportunity theory suggests that offenders make rational choices and thus choose targets that offer a high reward with little effort and risk. The occurrence of a crime depends on two things: the presence of at least one motivated offender who is ready and willing to engage in a crime, and the conditions of the environment in which that offender is situated, to wit, opportunities for crime. All crimes require opportunity but not every opportunity is followed by crime. Similarly, a motivated offender is necessary for the commission of a crime but not sufficient. A large part of this theory focuses on how variations in lifestyle or routine activities affect the opportunities for crime.
A Crime concentration is a spatial area to which high levels of crime incidents are attributed. A crime concentration can be the result of homogeneous or heterogeneous crime incidents. Hotspots are the result of various crimes occurring in relative proximity to each other within predefined human geopolitical or social boundaries. Crime concentrations are smaller units or set of crime targets within a hotspot. A single or a conjunction of crime concentrations within a study area can make up a crime hotspot.
Crime pattern theory is a way of explaining why people commit crimes in certain areas.
Social network analysis in criminology views social relationships in terms of network theory, consisting of nodes and ties. These networks are often depicted in a social network diagram, where nodes are represented as vertices and ties are represented as edges.
Per-Olof Helge Wikstrӧm is Professor of Ecological and Developmental Criminology at the University of Cambridge, Professorial Fellow of Girton College and Principal Investigator of the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+), a major ESRC funded longitudinal study of young people in the UK which aims to advance knowledge about crime causation and prevention. His main research interests are developing a unified theory of the causes of crime, testing it empirically and applying it to devising knowledge-based prevention policies. His work is internationally acknowledged, as demonstrated by his election as a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 2010 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2011.