ACR101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Public Space, Prison Overcrowding, Mandatory Sentencing
WEEK 5: Crime in the Streets
What is street crime
- Acts defined as criminal and committed in pubic places such as streets, shopping malls, train
stations, parks, carparks
oThefts
oRobbery
oDrug
oAlcohol
oAssaults
osexual offence
opublic order crimes(riot/scuffle/loitering))
- Street crime and social control
- Definitional constraints- hard to measure/compare
- Street crime as a measure of danger, shapes our perceptions of crime
- Fear, young people, media reporting doesn’t help (hype it up)
Background
oLong history to development of large cities-rapid increase in population, geographic
density, concentration of lower classes
oEarly understanding of crime- response to crime v social control, focus on crime
prevention
oOrigins of police force
oPrivate/business interests protected with public resources
Fear of crime in the streets
- “ a bigger problem than crime itself” (Bannister and Fyfe, 2001 cited in Ross and Hanley,
2017: p.135
- Construction of other- class race, sub-groups, minorities
- Stranger danger
- Different kinds of fear: “concrete fear” vs “generalized anxieties”
- Victimization/fear paradox- more likely to not suffer violence not likely to get victims of
street crime, men who don’t fear more likely to be victims
- Females are traditionally taught to feel vulnerable in streets more than males
Facts
- Street crime is on the decline
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Acts defined as criminal and committed in pubic places such as streets, shopping malls, train stations, parks, carparks: thefts, robbery, drug, alcohol, assaults, sexual offence, public order crimes(riot/scuffle/loitering)) Street crime as a measure of danger, shapes our perceptions of crime. Fear, young people, media reporting doesn"t help (hype it up) A bigger problem than crime itself (bannister and fyfe, 2001 cited in ross and hanley, Different kinds of fear: concrete fear vs generalized anxieties . Victimization/fear paradox- more likely to not suffer violence not likely to get victims of street crime, men who don"t fear more likely to be victims. Females are traditionally taught to feel vulnerable in streets more than males. Responses to public order crime shape this data significantly. Men are victims of violent street crime more often than women, but still more likely to be assaulted at work. Women more fearful, more likely to be assaulted in home. Most serious assaults do not occur in streets.
