Psychological Crime Prevention: Concepts, Evaluations, and Perspectives (From Social Intervention: Potential and Constraints, P 289-313, 1987, Klaus Hurrelmann, et. al., eds.)

• NCJ Number: 120474
• Author(s): F Losel
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 25 pages
• Sale Source: Walter de Gruyter & Co
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: West Germany (Former)

Annotation

Attempts at crime prevention, accompanied by a decline in the attractiveness of the concept of rehabilitative treatment, are not only motivated by high crime statistics but also by the goal of reducing stigmatizing interventions and by experiences with other concepts of social control.

Abstract

Preventive versus corrective interventions can be interpreted using cybernetic principles. Corrective measures correspond to the closed-loop control system in which information on the value of the controlled quantity is used to generate control forces; prevention measures, based on prediction, correspond to the open-loop control in which the control algorigthm is based on the idea of compensating for disturbances. Measures following the closed-loop control system are limited in their widespread effect, hence there has been an increase in the propagation of prevention based on the open-loop control system and consisting of a socialization-oriented approach and a situation-oriented approach. The further development of refined prevention concepts will require a greater concentration on basic problems, including theory, goals, systems thinking, multilevel models, intervention theories, evaluation, risk diagnosis, context orientation, interdisciplinarity, and role problems, with an emphasis on their reduction in research and practice. 3 figures, 156 references.