Crime control, surveillance, prevention and punishment, victims, and the…

The idea

This topic explores how society manages offending behaviour. Crime control and prevention strategies range from situational approaches, like designing out crime, to environmental and community methods. Surveillance involves monitoring populations, using Foucault's theories on disciplinary power alongside modern actuarial justice. Punishment serves functions including deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution, viewed differently by functionalists and Marxists. Victimology examines who becomes a victim, contrasting positivist victimology with critical victimology which highlights structural factors like poverty. Finally, the role of the criminal justice system and other agencies, such as the police and courts, is analysed regarding their effectiveness, biases, and role in maintaining social order.

What earns the marks

• Identify situational, environmental, and social or community crime prevention strategies.
• Recognise Foucault's concept of the Panopticon and sovereign versus disciplinary power in surveillance.
• Understand sociological perspectives on punishment, such as Durkheim's retributive and restitutive justice, and Marxist views on capitalism and imprisonment.
• Distinguish between positivist victimology, which focuses on victim precipitation, and critical victimology, which focuses on structural factors and the state's power to apply the label of victim.
• Evaluate the role of the criminal justice system and other agencies in relation to gender, ethnicity, and class inequalities.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Confusing situational crime prevention with environmental crime prevention.

  Put it right: Situational prevention focuses on reducing opportunities for specific crimes, whereas environmental prevention focuses on improving the wider physical environment to deter offending.

• Assuming all sociological theories view the criminal justice system as neutral.

  Put it right: While functionalists may see it as reflecting a value consensus, Marxists argue it serves the interests of the ruling class.

• Misunderstanding victim precipitation in positivist victimology.

  Put it right: This concept suggests victims actively or passively contribute to their own victimisation, rather than it being purely a result of structural inequalities, which is the focus of critical victimology.

Exam tips

• Use specific examples, such as CCTV or anti-homeless architecture, when discussing surveillance and situational crime prevention.
• Contrast different sociological perspectives, such as functionalist and Marxist views on the function of punishment, to build evaluation into your answers.
• When discussing victims, ensure you mention the dark figure of crime and how some victims are less likely to report offences to the criminal justice system.