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Crime Prevention Through Social and Physical Environmental Change

NCJ Number
111562
Journal
Behavior Analyst Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1987) Pages: 69-74
Author(s)
M T Nietzel; M J Himelein
Date Published
1987
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Behavior analysts can make important contributions to crime prevention by suggesting ways to modify environmental opportunities and victim vulnerabilities that are related to higher rates of offending.
Abstract
These approaches are useful because social and physical environments provide cues that set the occasion for criminal behavior and the consequences associated with it. Thus, designing environments that make criminal behaviors more difficult increases the costs of committing crimes and may prevent some criminal behavior. Ways to do this include target hardening through physical modifications and training victims to be less vulnerable to victimization. Another approach is to eliminate portrayals of certain groups, such as women, to prevent the legitimization of their victimization through such crimes as rape. Finally, organizing neighborhoods and communities through Neighborhood Watch programs and other programs is a way to strengthen their means of social control. These environmental approaches to crime prevention, which are consistent with the concept that different individuals have different predispositions to offend, are probably best accomplished through continuous small measures rather than major changes that might overpower the naturally existing abilities in a population. 24 references. (Author abstract modified)

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