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Crime prevention strategies and theories of punishment represent the practical application of criminological theory. Different theoretical perspectives lead to different assumptions about why people commit crime and, therefore, different proposals for how crime should be prevented and offenders should be dealt with. This lesson examines the major approaches to crime prevention and the sociological perspectives on punishment.
Key Definition: Crime prevention refers to strategies and policies designed to reduce the incidence of crime. Approaches range from making crime more difficult to commit (situational prevention) to addressing the underlying social causes of crime (social prevention).
Ron Clarke (1992) developed the concept of situational crime prevention (SCP), which focuses on reducing opportunities for crime rather than changing the motivation of offenders. SCP is based on rational choice theory — the assumption that criminals are rational actors who weigh up the costs and benefits of committing a crime.
The goal of SCP is to increase the costs and reduce the rewards of crime, making it less attractive to the rational offender. Clarke identified several techniques:
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