This chapter sorts out some of the ideas that are sometimes mixed together under the rubric of “s... more This chapter sorts out some of the ideas that are sometimes mixed together under the rubric of “social disorganization.” It argues that (1) social disorganization is really not an independent variable or a theory; (2) rather, it is a composite image of the “delinquency area”—the part of town that also has very high crime rates; and (3) this composite image can be disentangled and then clarified, allowing students to learn it and researchers to sharpen their findings. The chapter extracts four distinct images of the delinquency area in the effort to clarify the topic, help people learn it, and assist researchers.
Carjacking calls for a specialized analysis because it occurs at lightning speed within very brie... more Carjacking calls for a specialized analysis because it occurs at lightning speed within very brief windows of opportunity. This article describes the geographic distribution of carjacking in Campinas, Brazil, and then compares this pattern with Detroit, Michigan. We learn that raw numbers of carjackings are widely dispersed in both cities. Although these cities differ greatly in daily transportation systems, in both cities the carjacking risk estimate is greatest where motorists stop for other reasons—at gas stations or corners (Detroit); on short street blocks (Campinas). We make very limited inferences about carjacking around the world due to the limited number of cities studied thus far. However, we do suggest that carjacking reduction is most amenable to product-based forms of situational crime prevention.
At least half of all crime occurs through co-offending, which also helps feed much of the rest. Y... more At least half of all crime occurs through co-offending, which also helps feed much of the rest. Yet the process by which offenders find their accomplices is not well described or understood. Gangs and networks of offenders are surely important, but are amorphous and unstable. Our problem is to find a more coherent description of how offenders find one another. Such coherence derives from Barker's theory of behavior settings, which locates formal and informal local activities in space and time. Specifically, offender convergence settings help likely co-offenders dis- cover one another in the context of their routine activities. Such settings provide an ongoing structure for criminal cooperation, even as partici- pants change. This makes possible a local process of accomplice re- generation, leading to sustainable criminal behavior. Disrupting of- fender convergence settings (through design, situational prevention, civil or police action) sets in motion an accomplice depletion pro...
... as long as a word is used by twenty-five people in twenty-five different ways [Ezra Pound 196... more ... as long as a word is used by twenty-five people in twenty-five different ways [Ezra Pound 1963 ... The attribution of crime to particular racial, ethnic, or economic groups should have died in 1943 when Austin Porterfield showed that his students at Southern Methodist University had ...
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has impacted the world in ways not seen in generations. Initial evi... more The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has impacted the world in ways not seen in generations. Initial evidence suggests one of the effects is crime rates, which appear to have fallen drastically in many communities around the world. We argue that the principal reason for the change is the government ordered stay-at-home orders, which impacted the routine activities of entire populations. Because these orders impacted countries, states, and communities at different times and in different ways, a naturally occurring, quasi-randomized control experiment has unfolded, allowing the testing of criminological theories as never before. Using new and traditional data sources made available as a result of the pandemic criminologists are equipped to study crime in society as never before. We encourage researchers to study specific types of crime, in a temporal fashion (following the stay-at-home orders), and placed-based. The results will reveal not only why, where, when, and to what extent crime chan...
An amplifier arrangement for operating at least 3 amplifiers in parallel includes a first and sec... more An amplifier arrangement for operating at least 3 amplifiers in parallel includes a first and second sequence of hybrids, there being one less hybrid in each sequence than there are amplifiers. The first sequence of hybrids have one output connected to an amplifier and the other output connected to the input of the following hybrid, except the last hybrid in the sequence which has its other output connected to the last amplifier input. The second sequence of hybrids have two inputs, one from an associated amplifier and another from the preceding hybrid, except the first hybrid in the second sequence which has both inputs supplied from amplifiers.
Los números de septiembre y octubre del Boletín Criminológico están dedicados a la prevención de ... more Los números de septiembre y octubre del Boletín Criminológico están dedicados a la prevención de la delincuencia. El IAIC, Sección de Málaga, organizó una mesa redonda de discusión sobre este tema en el mes de junio, contando con la participación de la policía, representantes del Plan Estratégico de Málaga y grupos de vecinos de la ciudad. En este boletín incluimos un extracto de la memoria presentada en dicho seminario. El profesor Marcus Felson de la Universidad de New Jersey, (USA), ofreció un esbozo de sus teorías sobre prevención de la delincuencia, habiendo sido incorporadas en estos dos números algunas de sus ideas.
1. Introduccion. 2. Las nuevas teorias de la oportunidad. 2.1. El enfoque de la actividad rutinar... more 1. Introduccion. 2. Las nuevas teorias de la oportunidad. 2.1. El enfoque de la actividad rutinaria. 2.2. Teoria del patron delictivo. 2.3. La perspectiva de la eleccion racional. 3. Los diez principios de la oportunidad y el delito. 3.1. Las oportunidades desempenan un papel en la causacion de todo delito. 3.2. Las oportunidades delictivas son sumamente especificas. 3.3. Las oportunidades delictivas estan concentradas en el tiempo y el espacio. 3.4. Las oportunidades delictivas dependen de los movimientos de la actividad cotidiana. 3.5. Un delito crea oportunidades para otro. 3.6. Algunos productos ofrecen oportunidades de delito mas tentadoras. 3.7. Los cambios sociales y tecnologicos producen nuevas oportunidades delictivas. 3.8. El delito puede ser prevenido reduciendo las oportunidades. 3.9. La reduccion de las oportunidades no suele desplazar el delito. 3.10. Una reduccion de oportunidades focalizada puede producir un descenso de delitos mas amplio. 4. Conclusiones. Lecturas a...
Una pregunta que nos han hecho de forma más o menos directa muchos abogados, policías y jueces so... more Una pregunta que nos han hecho de forma más o menos directa muchos abogados, policías y jueces sobre este boletín es la siguiente: «¿Para qué sirven tantas encuestas y estadísticas sobre los delitos?» La respuesta concisa es: «Para poder prevenirlos.» Sin un amplio bagaje de conocimientos sobre las diversas formas de delincuencia y un análisis objetivo sobre el funcionamiento de la policía y los juzgados, difícilmente se pueden desarrollar propuestas sobre mejoras en la respuesta social ante el delito, ni tampoco poner en marcha programas para la prevención de la delincuencia. Sin embargo, un instituto universitario no tiene los recursos económicos ni personales para organizar iniciativas de este tipo. Nuestro papel ha de estar limitado, por tanto, a la presentación de propuestas, mientras a otros órganos les corresponde tomar decisiones sobre su desarrollo. Si las sugerencias presentadas resultan viables y despiertan interés, el IAIC, sección de Málaga, está en condiciones de desar...
The central business district of a service city often provides entertainment for the whole region... more The central business district of a service city often provides entertainment for the whole region, which may result in high rates of drunkenness, assault, vandalism and burglary. Such was the case for Geelong, the second largest city in the state of Victoria, Australia. Groups of youths would "pub hop" among numerous establishments serving liquor within the central business district. This led to fights, intimidation and a variety of crime and incivility. In 1989-90, together with the Liquor Commission and hotel licensees (publicans), the police led a cooperative effort — the Accord — to stop pub hopping. The Accord required cover charges to enter after 11:00 p.m., and removed exemptions for young women who were used to lure crowds of young men. The Accord prohibited unlimited reentry when a cover was paid, thus discouraging movement among establishments. It banned special promotional prices for alcoholic drinks, including "happy hours." Police patrolled and enfor...
This chapter sorts out some of the ideas that are sometimes mixed together under the rubric of “s... more This chapter sorts out some of the ideas that are sometimes mixed together under the rubric of “social disorganization.” It argues that (1) social disorganization is really not an independent variable or a theory; (2) rather, it is a composite image of the “delinquency area”—the part of town that also has very high crime rates; and (3) this composite image can be disentangled and then clarified, allowing students to learn it and researchers to sharpen their findings. The chapter extracts four distinct images of the delinquency area in the effort to clarify the topic, help people learn it, and assist researchers.
Carjacking calls for a specialized analysis because it occurs at lightning speed within very brie... more Carjacking calls for a specialized analysis because it occurs at lightning speed within very brief windows of opportunity. This article describes the geographic distribution of carjacking in Campinas, Brazil, and then compares this pattern with Detroit, Michigan. We learn that raw numbers of carjackings are widely dispersed in both cities. Although these cities differ greatly in daily transportation systems, in both cities the carjacking risk estimate is greatest where motorists stop for other reasons—at gas stations or corners (Detroit); on short street blocks (Campinas). We make very limited inferences about carjacking around the world due to the limited number of cities studied thus far. However, we do suggest that carjacking reduction is most amenable to product-based forms of situational crime prevention.
At least half of all crime occurs through co-offending, which also helps feed much of the rest. Y... more At least half of all crime occurs through co-offending, which also helps feed much of the rest. Yet the process by which offenders find their accomplices is not well described or understood. Gangs and networks of offenders are surely important, but are amorphous and unstable. Our problem is to find a more coherent description of how offenders find one another. Such coherence derives from Barker's theory of behavior settings, which locates formal and informal local activities in space and time. Specifically, offender convergence settings help likely co-offenders dis- cover one another in the context of their routine activities. Such settings provide an ongoing structure for criminal cooperation, even as partici- pants change. This makes possible a local process of accomplice re- generation, leading to sustainable criminal behavior. Disrupting of- fender convergence settings (through design, situational prevention, civil or police action) sets in motion an accomplice depletion pro...
... as long as a word is used by twenty-five people in twenty-five different ways [Ezra Pound 196... more ... as long as a word is used by twenty-five people in twenty-five different ways [Ezra Pound 1963 ... The attribution of crime to particular racial, ethnic, or economic groups should have died in 1943 when Austin Porterfield showed that his students at Southern Methodist University had ...
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has impacted the world in ways not seen in generations. Initial evi... more The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has impacted the world in ways not seen in generations. Initial evidence suggests one of the effects is crime rates, which appear to have fallen drastically in many communities around the world. We argue that the principal reason for the change is the government ordered stay-at-home orders, which impacted the routine activities of entire populations. Because these orders impacted countries, states, and communities at different times and in different ways, a naturally occurring, quasi-randomized control experiment has unfolded, allowing the testing of criminological theories as never before. Using new and traditional data sources made available as a result of the pandemic criminologists are equipped to study crime in society as never before. We encourage researchers to study specific types of crime, in a temporal fashion (following the stay-at-home orders), and placed-based. The results will reveal not only why, where, when, and to what extent crime chan...
An amplifier arrangement for operating at least 3 amplifiers in parallel includes a first and sec... more An amplifier arrangement for operating at least 3 amplifiers in parallel includes a first and second sequence of hybrids, there being one less hybrid in each sequence than there are amplifiers. The first sequence of hybrids have one output connected to an amplifier and the other output connected to the input of the following hybrid, except the last hybrid in the sequence which has its other output connected to the last amplifier input. The second sequence of hybrids have two inputs, one from an associated amplifier and another from the preceding hybrid, except the first hybrid in the second sequence which has both inputs supplied from amplifiers.
Los números de septiembre y octubre del Boletín Criminológico están dedicados a la prevención de ... more Los números de septiembre y octubre del Boletín Criminológico están dedicados a la prevención de la delincuencia. El IAIC, Sección de Málaga, organizó una mesa redonda de discusión sobre este tema en el mes de junio, contando con la participación de la policía, representantes del Plan Estratégico de Málaga y grupos de vecinos de la ciudad. En este boletín incluimos un extracto de la memoria presentada en dicho seminario. El profesor Marcus Felson de la Universidad de New Jersey, (USA), ofreció un esbozo de sus teorías sobre prevención de la delincuencia, habiendo sido incorporadas en estos dos números algunas de sus ideas.
1. Introduccion. 2. Las nuevas teorias de la oportunidad. 2.1. El enfoque de la actividad rutinar... more 1. Introduccion. 2. Las nuevas teorias de la oportunidad. 2.1. El enfoque de la actividad rutinaria. 2.2. Teoria del patron delictivo. 2.3. La perspectiva de la eleccion racional. 3. Los diez principios de la oportunidad y el delito. 3.1. Las oportunidades desempenan un papel en la causacion de todo delito. 3.2. Las oportunidades delictivas son sumamente especificas. 3.3. Las oportunidades delictivas estan concentradas en el tiempo y el espacio. 3.4. Las oportunidades delictivas dependen de los movimientos de la actividad cotidiana. 3.5. Un delito crea oportunidades para otro. 3.6. Algunos productos ofrecen oportunidades de delito mas tentadoras. 3.7. Los cambios sociales y tecnologicos producen nuevas oportunidades delictivas. 3.8. El delito puede ser prevenido reduciendo las oportunidades. 3.9. La reduccion de las oportunidades no suele desplazar el delito. 3.10. Una reduccion de oportunidades focalizada puede producir un descenso de delitos mas amplio. 4. Conclusiones. Lecturas a...
Una pregunta que nos han hecho de forma más o menos directa muchos abogados, policías y jueces so... more Una pregunta que nos han hecho de forma más o menos directa muchos abogados, policías y jueces sobre este boletín es la siguiente: «¿Para qué sirven tantas encuestas y estadísticas sobre los delitos?» La respuesta concisa es: «Para poder prevenirlos.» Sin un amplio bagaje de conocimientos sobre las diversas formas de delincuencia y un análisis objetivo sobre el funcionamiento de la policía y los juzgados, difícilmente se pueden desarrollar propuestas sobre mejoras en la respuesta social ante el delito, ni tampoco poner en marcha programas para la prevención de la delincuencia. Sin embargo, un instituto universitario no tiene los recursos económicos ni personales para organizar iniciativas de este tipo. Nuestro papel ha de estar limitado, por tanto, a la presentación de propuestas, mientras a otros órganos les corresponde tomar decisiones sobre su desarrollo. Si las sugerencias presentadas resultan viables y despiertan interés, el IAIC, sección de Málaga, está en condiciones de desar...
The central business district of a service city often provides entertainment for the whole region... more The central business district of a service city often provides entertainment for the whole region, which may result in high rates of drunkenness, assault, vandalism and burglary. Such was the case for Geelong, the second largest city in the state of Victoria, Australia. Groups of youths would "pub hop" among numerous establishments serving liquor within the central business district. This led to fights, intimidation and a variety of crime and incivility. In 1989-90, together with the Liquor Commission and hotel licensees (publicans), the police led a cooperative effort — the Accord — to stop pub hopping. The Accord required cover charges to enter after 11:00 p.m., and removed exemptions for young women who were used to lure crowds of young men. The Accord prohibited unlimited reentry when a cover was paid, thus discouraging movement among establishments. It banned special promotional prices for alcoholic drinks, including "happy hours." Police patrolled and enfor...
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