Introduction
Everything that was considered by scientists earlier, including crime, its causes, and the criminal’s identity, ultimately pursues the goal of mastering modern criminological knowledge about crime prevention. At its core, crime prevention is a specific area of social regulation, management, and control, which has a multi-level character and pursues the goal of combating crime by identifying and eliminating its causes and conditions, and other determinants. Criminology studies crime prevention as a complex dynamic system. Its functioning is connected with the solution of both general tasks of social development and specialized tasks in the field of combating this negative phenomenon.
Crime Prevention
As a rule, in criminology, the preventive system of state and public measures is aimed at eliminating or neutralizing, weakening the causes and conditions of crime, deterring crimes, and correcting the behavior of offenders. The last one is analyzed according to its orientation, mechanism of action, stages, scale, content, subjects, and other parameters. It is usual to distinguish between general social and special crime prevention measures based on their relevance (Braga, 2018). General social prevention is not directly related to crime. It is justified by the fact that positive social development, its enhancements of political, social, economic, and other institutions, and crisis management that feeds crime from life works to its prevention.
In contrast to general defensive measures, specific measures are taken with the intent of preventing crime. Depending on the scale of application, warning measures are distinguished (Braga, 2018):
- nationwide, belonging to large social groups;
- related to individual objects or micro-groups;
- individual ones.
It is common to distinguish between direct crime prevention and recidivism prevention based on the phases. It is more important to identify such stages as prevention, control, and suppression from a practical perspective.
General Social Crime Prevention
The following indicators of general crime prevention methods still exist in today’s situations. However, they are primarily displayed in a different way: scale, all-encompassing and diversified character, intricacy and interconnectedness, continuity, and radicality are all factors to consider. Due to these characteristics, a general warning is a basis, the foundation of a particular warning – a proactive confrontation with crime (Braga, 2018). As a result, law enforcement personnel and specialized public organizations are working diligently to plan leisure time for troubled teens who have registered with the police. They can only expect to succeed if society, the state, and its educational and cultural structures give sufficient attention to concerns of life support, development, and socialization of the younger generation (Tilley, 2018). As a consequence, the required resources have been set aside. To safeguard children’s interests and enhance their condition, a well-thought-out social policy is implemented. Similarly, they can be effective if particular measures to prevent property crimes are undertaken under appropriate economic, financial, and control systems.
Hence, the measures of broad social prevention are diverse. They have an impact on nearly all types, groups, causes, circumstances, and other factors of crime. At the broad systemic level, the multidimensional, complex nature of crime prevention is most obviously reflected. At the same time, the interrelationship of multiple measures in terms of substance, such as economic, social, cultural and educational, and legal, is a vital aspect of general social prevention. Also fundamental is the capacity to use reciprocal complementation for summarizing and giving anti-criminogenic effects a new, considerably more excellent quality in terms of efficacy.
Special Crime Prevention
In contrast to general crime prevention, special crime prevention focuses on preventing specific crimes. Profiling, constituting, and the primary characteristic of crime have a particular objective for identifying and removing crime’s causes, circumstances, and other factors (Braga, 2018). Special criminological prevention also covers the deterrence of planned and prepared crimes as well as the suppression of committed crimes. Special criminological measures can be determined based on the degree of radicality: preventing the occurrence of criminogenic events and circumstances, neutralizing such phenomena, and eradicating them.
Special prevention, excluding planned, prepared, and suppressed crimes, is criminological deterrence, which focuses on the causes, circumstances, and other factors that influence crime. As this element of preventative action is investigated within the context of criminology, it is necessary to expand on it. The distinction between general and individual criminological prevention is crucial in practice. Some normative acts are used to carry it out. It serves as the foundation for addressing critical concerns such as the distinction of competence of structural divisions of criminological prevention subjects, employee specialization, results analysis, and assessment of the effectiveness of preventive measures (Tilley, 2018). Furthermore, it is important that this classification is founded on several widely accepted principles concerning the nature of crime and the characteristics of its determination.
Subjects of Crime Prevention
The subjects of general crime prevention are nearly the entire society, civil society institutions, and the state. The identification of people is the first step in individual prevention (Braga, 2018). It is reasonable to predict the commission of crimes and the provision of educational and other measures of impact on people and their surroundings to avoid crimes based on verifiable facts about their antisocial, unlawful activity. State and non-state, specialist and non-specialized, and other features differ. A variety of subjects solve the duties of specific crime prevention. The circle of these issues is set according to the legal procedure.
State and municipal enterprises, cultural, healthcare, and educational institutions play a significant role in specific criminological prevention. Private, and commercial structures for industrial and other purposes, particularly those that ensure their own security, are also important (Tilley, 2018). Financial control duties, which are crucial for the prevention of economic crimes, are now carried out by both governmental and commercial entities, as well as their management bodies (commercial banks, audit firms).
In collaboration with the authorities, the local government should make a substantial contribution to the cause of specific criminological crime prevention. This is accomplished by utilizing its responsibility to oversee the municipal property, approve and implement the local budget, and resolve other local concerns. The primary goal, however, is to maintain public order. Various public formations, such as political parties, movements, foundations, and religious groups, are non-specialized subjects of special prevention (Tilley, 2018). Religious denominations, for example, are becoming more involved, with representatives engaging in instructional and preventative work with prisoners. They also organize charity activities for the impoverished, individuals without a stable address, and other socially disadvantaged people.
From a criminological viewpoint, analyzing the mentioned issues, both state and public, have one essential trait, notwithstanding the variations in substance and activity direction. They have more than one purpose, including crime prevention and, more broadly, the fighting against crime (Tilley, 2018). Except for one, the need for protection from criminal encroachment, various needs of society drive the production of material goods, the organization of power, the management of various aspects of social life, the satisfaction of religious feelings and beliefs, and the self-determination of ethnic communities.
Internal Affairs Bodies
Internal affairs bodies devote a substantial amount of time and effort to preventing specific criminological crimes. In this situation, their distinctive function is defined by a wide range of competencies and abilities to conduct operational-investigative, administrative-jurisdictional, criminal-procedural, and other types of operations to combat crimes and the majority of crimes (Braga, 2018). The existence of various services and divisions in the organization, such as those specialized in criminological prevention and other variables, differs across the bodies. In the fight against economic crimes, organized crime, and corruption, the criminal police, the operational-investigative apparatus of the criminal investigation department operating in its composition, make a decisive contribution to the prevention of planned and prepared crimes as well as the suppression of violations initiated.
The status of police departments as a single centralized system of bodies that oversee the implementation of laws in force on the country’s territory determines their place and role in the number of subjects of special criminological prevention (Mourtgos et al., 2018). Police departments help to the introduction into the legal channel and stabilization of primary economic connections by identifying and repressing violations of legislation on property, privatization, land use, taxation, international economic, credit, and financial activities. They also assist in the prevention of criminally dangerous circumstances, restricting the extent of the reasons and conditions that contribute to embezzlement, economic, official, and other crimes.
The police departments are tasked with coordinating law enforcement activities in the fight against criminality, especially crime prevention. Currently, this function of the departments takes into account the rise in the number of specific criminological preventative topics, the presence of overlapping moments in their competence, and occasionally elements of duplication, as well as other variables (Mourtgos et al., 2018). This is especially essential when it comes to simplifying, delivering, and monitoring the effectiveness of multiple preventative interventions. Finally, police operations in all of these areas aid in the education of people and authorities in the spirit of legal principles and the rule of law and the development of respect for legal norms and processes, which is critical for crime prevention.
The Basics of Victimological Prevention
Victimology is the victim’s philosophy; when it comes to crime prevention theory and practice, only talking about people who have been sufferers of various crimes (Chataway, 2017). The experience of battling crime has shown that the personal characteristics of those who become victims play an essential role in the mechanism of harmful behavior. The same example reveals another truth: if the supposed victim had shown foresight and offered a suitable resistance to the potential criminal, the crime would not have occurred or ended in vain.
Victimology is the study of crime and criminal conduct from the perspective of the victims’ conditioning by their personal and role characteristics and their connection with the criminal before and during the crime (Chataway, 2017). The study’s direct focus is on the individuals or groups to whom the crime caused moral, bodily, or material harm, as well as the circumstances that preceded or accompanied the time of damage. By its very nature, a person’s or a group’s behavior can be illegal as well as victimized, making it hazardous, imprudent, frivolous, licentious, provocative, and harmful to oneself.
Victimological prevention is a social institution’s practice of identifying, eliminating or neutralizing the causes that generate victim behavior (Chataway, 2017). This practice also aims to identify at-risk groups and individuals who have experienced a higher level of victimization. After then, an impact is made on them in order to repair or activate their defensive abilities. In addition, current specific ways of defending citizens from crimes and consequent victimization should be developed or improved.
Crime Control
Different components contribute to the overall structure of the fighting against crime. There are such vital functions as information and analytical activities for the registration of crime manifestations. Also, it is needed to study these manifestations, their causality, and determination. It is essential to consider the results of the fight against crime at previous stages and the assessment of relevant data. This is done by creating crime accounting systems, and statistical reporting. It is worth noting the current analytical activities of bodies fighting crime, the development of criminological research, and theoretical generalizations of the information obtained. Another deciding factor is criminological forecasting which evaluates the future state of crime and other criminologically significant implications of management solutions.
The definition of a crime-fighting strategy follows this. Based on the assessments of the criminological situation and the recommendations of specialists on further combating crime, the state determines its strategy (Mangels, 2020). The next step is the programming of the fight against crime. There is long-term programming that reflects the crime-fighting strategy as much as possible, medium-term and short-term. The management of society and the state’s social, political, and economic growth is linked to the programming of fighting against crime (Xu, 2020). The fight against crime should be an organic part of politics in society – both state and political activities of various non-state structures, and civil society institutions.
An important aspect is law-making in the field of combating crime. If existing law does not provide the combat with the new characteristics of the offender and the criminogenic situation in the country, serious and focused work is needed to amend, supplement or create fundamentally new regulations (Mangels, 2020). This is followed by the implementation of anti-crime programs, their adjustment, and coordination of anti-crime activities. Direct support for crime control programs is multifaceted. It includes management, supervision, staff selection, training, optimal placement, and professional development organization. Retraining also takes into account new criminological and broader social realities, development of new equipment, resource support for crime control, impact analysis of adopted and adjustment of implemented programs.
The organization and development of scientific research in the field of combating crime are also significant. In this instance, it is essential to notice the establishment of a network of research institutes as well as scientific personnel training. In addition, it is necessary to improve the research methodology and introduce the results of scientific achievements into practice. Along with criminological research, the deployment of interdisciplinary and complex research is essential. Finally, the final stage is law enforcement. Concerning crime, it includes the application of measures provided by law to persons who commit crimes (Mangels, 2020). Measures are also taken to restore the rights, and legitimate interests of victims of these crimes who have had their rights and legitimate interests breached and pay for the impairment inflicted.
Conclusion
All of the above allows for defining a strategy for controlling crime. The control crime strategy is a multi-level set of measures of preventive impact on crime due to the current political, and socio-economic situation in conditions aimed at achieving their effective implementation. Summing up, it should be said that the term “crime control strategy” allows for determining the main directions of the impact on crime, the effective organization, and the implementation of appropriate measures of influence. It also allows identifying individual elements that determine the success of a crime-fighting strategy. The concept of “crime prevention” is only the core and is an integral part of the concept of “crime control strategy.” In the direction of this activity, citizens, state, and non-state organizations carry out planning, management, and implementation of crime prevention measures at various levels.
Thus, analyzing the various components of the crime prevention system, it is possible to conclude. Thus, it becomes clear that interaction with criminals is a rather complex process involving many actors. In addition, in order to effectively prevent crime, a considerable number of resources are required. All these aspects do not depend solely on the activities of the police. In order to reduce the possibility of new criminal situations, it is necessary to interact with many organizations. It should be stated that power structures have a decisive role to play. However, the mass media or other non-state structures should exercise reasonable responsibility. The very perception of reality by a person is also essential. Therefore, it is necessary to learn competent behavior in certain situations. Thus, by observing and taking all the necessary measures, it is possible to reduce crime significantly.
References
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Mourtgos, S. M., Wise, R. A., & Petros, T. (2018). The consequences of restricting police arrest authority: Less deterrence and more crime. Policing: An International Journal, 41(2), 233-246. Web.
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