Crime Prevention - Situational Crime Prevention | A-Level Sociology

welcome to this tutorial sociology topic video looking at crime prevention focusing on situational crime prevention one form of crime prevention is situational crime prevention this form of crime prevention stems from the ideas of rational choice theory and is focused on reducing the opportunities to commit crime this is achieved through a process known

as target hardening making specific targets for crime more difficult to access the theoretical idea behind this is that criminals commit crime because they weigh up the costs and potential rewards of a crime before making a rational decision on whether or not to commit crime if the opportunities for crime are reduced or the chances of being court increase

this in theory would cause the criminal not to commit crime there are three main features of situational crime prevention firstly they are often directed at specific forms of crime mainly theft and property damage secondly they involve the alteration of areas that are susceptible to these forms of crime such as shopping centers and areas where there are high volumes

of traffic late at night thirdly situational crime prevention looks to reduce the potential rewards for criminals while simultaneously making it harder for them to achieve the rewards that are on offer there are plenty of examples of situational crime prevention in towns and cities across the uk in city centers the inclusion of close

circuit television particularly in areas where there is nightlife and shopping has become more commonplace over the last 30 years as technology has advanced home situational crime prevention such as burglar alarms and other security features such as motion sensor cameras and home video systems have increased in recent years shops will use situational crime