Crime Prevention Approaches - Essay Example

The police force, magistrates, and corrections approach is one of the traditional methods used to prevent crimes. They have significant functions to play, however, they can be utilized more efficiently to stop crime. Conventionally, police force services mainly focus on town extensive patrols, reacting to calls, inquiries, and arrests. The courts give attention to assessing faults and crimes committed as well as sentencing the offender. Correctional approaches aim at supervising criminals during their verdicts and may or may not try to rehabilitate the criminals. The situational approach works towards decreasing the opportunities for the offense by enlarging risks for the criminal and reducing the advantages of the crime. Examples of situational approaches to offense prevention consist of enhanced lighting in public areas and self-defense mechanics for women. “In the United Kingdom, a program targeting repeat residential burglaries was implemented in Kirkholt, one of the highest crime estates in Britain.

Under the program, the physical condition of the area was improved by installing locks and new lighting in vulnerable points of entry. As well, small groups of neighbors were encouraged to create "cocoons" where they would look out for each others' property” (Situational Prevention, 2004). Under this approach, prevention can vary from a general sense of safety measures to wide-ranging society planning. Social development approaches work towards preventing crimes in the course of society and speak to the various social features, which are the root cause of crime. Since crime avoidance in the course of social expansion approaches first made its policy available through a document in the year 1984, an emergent body of study has confirmed that social expansion approaches to crime avoidance can be very successful and effective indeed. “In the United Kingdom, a program which provided 10 hours of activities a week to the 50 youth most at-risk in 70 of the most difficult neighborhoods helped reduce youth arrests by 65% and reduced school expulsions by 30%” (Weiler & Waller, 1984). The most efficient approach with regard to drug offending is the social development approach. This approach directly challenges the social elements that mainly cause drug offending. Addressing various factors related to drug offending can considerably decrease the levels of offense and aggression. The use of drugs and the criminality of a person are positively interconnected. So to prevent such crimes, it is necessary to prevent the usage of drugs by completely banning them.