NCJ Number
85679
Date Published
Unknown
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This presentation takes a first step toward a broader theoretical framework for preventing petty crime and discusses the effect of existing crime prevention efforts with reference to the proposed theoretical model.
Abstract
The main premise of victimological risk analysis is that an offender must have an opportunity to commit a crime. The proposed risk model includes the factors of proxmimity, attractiveness, and exposure. Proximity has a geographic aspect (spending time or living in the vicinity of potential offenders and a social aspect (the number of contacts with potential offenders resulting from a particular lifestyle). The attractiveness factor is the extent to which someone or something clearly represents an attractive target for potential offenders. The exposure factor is the extent to which an offender is given an opportunity to commit an offense when he or she comes into contact with an attractive target. The range of significant interactions between the different elements of the model is such that for future analyses a systems theory approach will have to be used. The proposed theoretical framework will make it possible to determine systematically the socioeconomic, physical, and social components in the structure of society which generate crime; further, it will indicate where barriers might be placed between potential offenders and potential victims. Current experiments in primary prevention indicate that informal social control offers the best hope. This implies a reorientation of the urban way of life, so that contact and cooperation between citizens increases and responsibility for the quality of community life and safety increases.