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. Studies
Criminologists such as Gottfredson, McKenzie, Eck, Farrington, Sherman,
Waller and others have been at the forefront of analyzing what works to
prevent crime. Prestigious commissions and research bodies, such as the World
Health Organization, United Nations, the United States National Research Council,
the UK Audit Commission and so on, have analyzed their and others' research on
what lowers rates of interpersonal crime.
They agree that governments must go beyond law enforcement and criminal
justice to tackle the risk factors that cause crime because it is more cost
effective and leads to greater social benefits than the standard ways of
responding to crime. Interestingly, multiple opinion polls also confirm
public support for investment in prevention. Waller uses these materials
in Less Law, More Order to propose specific measures to reduce crime as
well as a crime bill. Some of the highlights of these
authorities are set out below with some sources for further reading. The World
Health Organization Guide complements the World Report on Violence and Health
and the 2003 World Health Assembly Resolution 56-24 for governments to
implement nine recommendations, which were:
Create, implement and monitor a national action plan for violence prevention.
Enhance capacity for collecting data on violence.
Define priorities for, and support research on, the causes, consequences,
costs and prevention of violence. Promote primary prevention responses.
Strengthen responses for victims of violence.
Integrate violence prevention into social and educational policies, and
thereby promote gender and social equality.
Increase collaboration and exchange of information on violence prevention.
Promote and monitor adherence to international treaties, laws and other
mechanisms to protect human rights. Seek practical, internationally agreed
responses to the global drugs and global arms trade.
The authoritative commissions agree on the Role of Municipalities, because they
are best able to organize the strategies to tackle the risk factors that cause
crime. The European Forum for Urban Safety and the United States Conference
of Mayors have stressed that municipalities must target the programs
to meet the needs of youth at risk and women who are vulnerable to violence.
To succeed, they need to establish a coalition of key agencies such as
schools, job creation, social services, housing and law enforcement around a
diagnosis. Types
Several factors must come together for a crime to occur:
an individual or group must have the desire or motivation to participate in a
banned or prohibited behavior; at least some of the participants must
have the skills and tools needed to commit the crime; and,
an opportunity must be acted upon. Primary prevention address individual
and family level factors correlated with later criminal participation. Individual
level factors such as attachment to school and involvement in pro-social
activities decrease the probability of criminal involvement.
Family level factors such as consistent parenting skills similarly reduce
individual level risk. Risk factors are additive in nature. The greater the
number of risk factors present the greater the risk of criminal
involvement. In addition there are initiatives which seek to alter rates of
crime at the community or aggregate level.
For example, Larry Sherman from the University of Maryland in Policing
Domestic Violence demonstrated that changing the policy of police response
to domestic violence calls altered the probability of subsequent violence.
Policing hot spots, areas of known criminal activity, decreases the number
of criminal events reported to the police in those areas. Other initiatives
include community policing efforts to capture known criminals. Organizations
such as America's Most Wanted and Crime Stoppers these help catch the criminals.
Secondary prevention uses techniques focusing on at risk situations such as
youth who are dropping out of school or getting involved in gangs. It targets
social programs and law enforcement at neighborhoods where crime rates are
high. The use of secondary crime prevention in cities such as Birmingham
and Bogotá have achieved large reductions in crime and violence.
Programs that are focused on youth at risk have been shown to significantly
reduce crime. Tertiary prevention is used after a
crime has occurred in order to prevent successive incidents. Such measures can
be seen in the implementation of new security policies following acts of
terrorism such the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Situational crime prevention uses techniques focusing on reducing on the
opportunity to commit a crime. Some of techniques include increasing the
difficulty of crime, increasing the risk of crime, and reducing the rewards of
crime. Situational Crime Prevention
= Introduction and Description = Situational crime prevention is a
relatively new concept that employs a preventative approach by focussing on
methods to reduce the opportunities for crime. SCP focuses on the criminal
setting and is different from most criminology as it begins with an
examination of the circumstances that allow particular types of crime. By
gaining an understanding of these circumstances, mechanisms are then
introduced to change the relevant environments with the aim of reducing
the opportunities for particular crimes. Thus, SCP focuses on crime prevention
rather than the punishment or detection of criminals and its intention is to
make criminal activities less appealing to offenders.
SCP focuses on opportunity-reducing processes that:
Are aimed at particular forms of crime; Entail the management, creation or
manipulation of the immediate environment in as organised and
permanent a manner as possible; and Result in crime being more difficult and
risky or less rewarding and justifiable. The theory behind SCP concentrates on
the creation of safety mechanisms that assist in protecting people by making
criminals feel they may be unable to commit crimes or would be in a situation
where they may be caught or detected, which will result in them being
unwilling to commit crimes where such mechanisms are in place. The logic
behind this is based on the concept of rational choice - that every criminal
will assess the situation of a potential crime, weigh up how much they may gain,
balance it against how much they may lose and the probability of failing, and
then act accordingly. One example of SCP in practice is
automated traffic enforcement. Automated Traffic Enforcement Systems use
automated cameras on the roads to catch drivers who are speeding and those who
run red lights. Such systems enjoy use all over the world. These systems have
been installed and are advertised as an attempt to keep illegal driving
incidences down. As a potential criminal, someone who is about to speed
or run a red light knows that their risk of getting caught is nearly 100% with
these systems. This completely disincentivizes the person from speeding
or running red lights in areas in which they know ATES are set up. Though not
conclusive, evidence shows that these type of systems work. In a Philadelphia
study, some of the city's most dangerous intersections had a reduction of 96% in
red light violations after the installation and advertisement of an
ATES system. Applying SCP to Information Systems
Situational Crime Prevention in general attempts to move away from the
"dispositional" theories of crime commission i.e. the influence of
psychosocial factors and/or genetic makeup of the criminal, and to focus on
those environmental/situational factors that can potentially influence criminal
conduct. Hence rather than focus on the criminal, SCP focuses on the
circumstances that lend themselves to crime commission. Understanding these
circumstances leads to the introduction of measures that alter the environmental
factors with the aim of reducing opportunities for criminal behavior.
Other aspects of SCP include: a) targeting specific forms of crime e.g.
cybercrime b) aiming to increase the effort and potential risks of crime c)
reducing provocative phenomena = Safeguarding =
Another aspect of SCP that is more applicable to the cyber environment is
the principle of safeguarding. The introduction of these safeguards is
designed to influence the potential offender's view of the risks and
benefits of committing the crime. A criminal act is usually performed if the
offender decides that there is little or no risk attached to the act. One of the
goals of SCP is to implement safeguards to the point where the potential
offender views the act unfavourably. For example, if a driver approaches a
traffic junction where there are speed cameras, he/she evaluates that there is
a nearly 100% chance of being caught trying to run a red light, and hence
slows down. The use of crime "scripts" has been touted as a method of
administering safeguards. Scripts were originally developed in the field of
cognitive science and focus on the behavioural processes involved in
rational goal-oriented behaviour. Hence scripts have been proposed as tool for
examining criminal behaviour. In particular the use of what is termed a
"universal script" has been advanced for correctly identifying all the stages in
the commission process of a crime. Application to cybercrimes
It has been suggested that cybercriminals be assessed in terms of
their criminal attributes, which include skills, knowledge,resources, access and
motives. Cybercriminals usually have a high degree of these attributes and this
is why SCP may prove more useful than traditional approaches to crime. Clarke
proposed a table of twenty-five techniques of Situational Crime
Prevention, but the five general headings are: 1) Increasing the effort
to commit the crime 2) Increasing the risks of committing the crime 3)
Reducing the rewards of committing the crime 4) Reducing any provocation for
committing the crime 5) Removing any excuses for committing the crime These
techniques can be specifically adapted to cybercrime as follows:
''Increasing the effort Reinforcing targets and restricting
access- the use of firewalls, encryption, card/password access to ID
databases and banning hacker websites and magazines.
Increasing the risk Reinforcing authentication procedures-
background checks for employees with database access, tracking keystrokes of
computer users, use of photo and thumb print for ID documents/credit cards,
requiring additional ID for online purchases, use of cameras at ATMs and at
point of sale. Reducing the rewards
Removing targets and disrupting cyberplaces- monitoring Internet sites
and incoming spam, harsh penalties for hacking, rapid notification of
stolen/lost credit bankcards, avoiding ID numbers on all official documents.
Reducing provocation and excuses Avoiding disputes and temptations-
maintaining positive employee-management relations and increasing awareness of
responsible use policy. It is important to note that many of
these techniques do not require a considerable investment in hi-tech IT
skills and knowledge. Rather, it is the effective utilization and training of
existing personnel that is key. It has been suggested that the theory
behind situational crime prevention may also be useful in improving information
systems security by decreasing the rewards criminals may expect from a
crime. SCP theory aims to affect the motivation of criminals by means of
environmental and situational changes and is based on three elements:
Increasing the perceived difficulty of crime;
Increasing the risks; and Reducing the rewards.
IS professionals and others who wish to fight computer crime could use the same
techniques and consequently reduce the frequency of computer crime that targets
the information assets of businesses and organisations. Designing out crime from
the environment is a crucial element of SCP and the most efficient way of using
computers to fight crime is to predict criminal behaviour, which as a result,
makes it difficult for such behaviour to be performed. SCP also has an advantage
over other IS measures because it does not focus on crime from the criminal’s
viewpoint. Many businesses/organisations are heavily dependent on information and
communications technology and information is a hugely valuable asset,
which means IS has become increasingly important. While storing information in
computers enables easy access and sharing by users, computer crime is a
considerable threat to such information, whether committed by an external hacker
or by an ‘insider’. After viruses, illicit access to and theft of,
information form the highest percentage of all financial losses associated with
computer crime and security incidents. Businesses need to protect themselves
against such illegal or unethical activities, which may be committed via
electronic or other methods and IS security technologies are vital in order
to protect against amendment, unauthorised disclosure and/or misuse of
information. Computer intrusion fraud is a huge business with hackers being
able to find passwords, read and alter files and read email, but such crime
could almost be eliminated if hackers could be prevented from accessing a
computer system or identified quickly enough.
Despite many years of computer security research, huge amounts of money being
spent on secure operations and an increase in training requirements, there
are frequent reports of computer penetrations and data thefts at some of
the most heavily protected computer systems in the world. Criminal
activities in cyberspace are increasing with computers being used for numerous
illegal activities, including email surveillance, credit card fraud and
software piracy. As the popularity and growth of the Internet continues to
increase, many web applications and services are being set up, which are
widely used by businesses for their business transactions.
In the case of computer crime, even cautious companies or businesses that
aim to create effective and comprehensive security measures may
unintentionally produce an environment, which helps provide opportunities
because they are using inappropriate controls. Consequently, if the
precautions are not providing an adequate level of security, the IS will
be at risk. = Situational Crime Prevention and Fraud
In computer systems that have been developed to design out crime from the
environment, one of the tactics used is risk assessment, where business
transactions, clients and situations are monitored for any features that indicate
a risk of criminal activity. Credit card fraud has been one of the most complex
crimes worldwide in recent times and despite numerous prevention initiatives,
it is clear that more needs to be done if the problem is to be solved. Fraud
management comprises a whole range of activities, including early warning
systems, signs and patterns of different types of fraud, profiles of users and
their activities, security of computers and avoiding customer dissatisfaction.
There are a number of issues that make the development of fraud management
systems an extremely difficult and challenging task, including the huge
volume of data involved; the requirement for fast and accurate fraud detection
without inconveniencing business operations; the ongoing development of
new fraud to evade existing techniques; and the risk of false alarms.
Generally, fraud detection techniques fall into two categories: statistical
techniques and artificial intelligence techniques.
Important statistical data analysis techniques to detect fraud include:
Grouping and classification to determine patterns and associations among sets of
data. Matching algorithms to identify
irregularities in the transactions of users compared to previous profiles.
Data pre-processing techniques for validation, correction of errors and
estimating incorrect or missing data. Important AI techniques for fraud
management are: Data mining – to categorise and group
data and automatically identify associations and rules that may be
indicative of remarkable patterns, including those connected to fraud.
Specialist systems to programme expertise for fraud detection in the
shape of rules. Pattern recognition to identify groups
or patterns of behaviour either automatically or to match certain
inputs. Machine learning techniques to
automatically detect the characteristics of fraud
Neural networks that can learn suspicious patterns and later identify
them. See also
Predictive policing Notes
Bibliography External links
Institute for the Prevention of Crime International Center for the Prevention
of Crime Crime Prevention and Social Media
Community of Practice