MODULE 4[D]: PRACTICAL WAYS OF

MINIMISING CRIME

The Oxford dictionary defines crime as, "An action or omission which constitutes an offence
and is punishable by law."
In this modern era, crime is no more considered as a vicious act. To be seen on a wider
perspective, crime is the second name of revenge and he who has decided to take revenge,
can go to any extent of being sinister. On the other hand, he who protects himself from being
attacked also ends up doing crime, making the whole concept nothing but more complex.
By prevention of crime, we mean the attempt to reduce and deter crime and criminals. 1 This
is practically related more or less to the functioning of the Governments and their policies to
reduce crimes, enforce the law and maintain criminal justice. For this purpose, the
Governments are required to break their stereotypical procedures and go beyond law
enforcement and criminal justice to tackle the risk function of crime.
In this piece of work we will learn about the various aspects and ways of minimising crime
and their practicalities. There are various approaches and methods to minimise crimes be it
white collar crime or sinister crimes or crime of any other nature. The gamut of crime in
today's world has enlarged and has become a very huge clutter. Let's move further and study
the modus operandi of reducing crime.

1
Wikipedia, Crime Prevention, WIKIPEDIA, (Jun. 19, 2020, 3:24 PM),
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_prevention.
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INTRODUCTION
"He who does not prevent crime when he can, encourages it."- Seneca.
The above stated quote is very accurate in our lives, but, it is also true that such an approach
is very difficult to accept and practice mainly because of two reasons:
1. The fear of being victimized yourself of the crime;
2. The fear of being prosecuted for no reason.
These 2 reasons play a very vital role in regulating the crimes in our day to day environment.
For example, 2 criminals enter into a store to rob it. They approached the cash counter with a
gun, the people already who were inside the store, did nothing out of the fear of getting shot
themselves. Thus, the crime got successful. The second reason is a more crucial subject to
study. In a society where people fear to approach the forum or to approach the authorities
who are supposed to look after the criminal situations. Such a society is nothing but a black
hole filled with dark offensive matters. Before we study the ways to reduce crime in our
society, let us first learn about the reasons which are mainly blamed for the rise in crime. 2
● Poverty- The world has more than 3 billion people living below the poverty line, who
are deprived of all the basic needs which a human being requires. The more shocking
fact is that, around 1 billion of them are children. This makes poverty the most
substantial reason for crime in our society. Poverty leads people to engage in crime
because of the hunger of money. Often the poor population ends up in crimes like
drugs laundering, human trafficking, child exploitation etc.
● Politics- This is again a major reason for crime, especially in Asia. Latest trends show
a rapid growth in crime rates engaged in local politics. The urge of getting that seat
and the power which comes along with that, drives the political heads to engage in
crime.
● Drugs- This is yet again a vital reason for increase in crime rates and has been
observed to be in existence since a very long time. A poor lifestyle leads a man to
engage with drugs and it is an established fact that drugs are a large contributor to the

2
Net News Ledger, Top 10 Reasons for Crime, NNL, (Jun. 19, 3:45 PM),
http://www.netnewsledger.com/2019/10/08/top-10-reasons-for-crime/.
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 practice of crime in our society. Crimes like domestic violence, homicides and even
self killing have been held to be the results of drug overdose.
● Religion- Mainly in countries where concept of secularism or equality do not exist,
crimes related to religion are observed. Although practicing religion of one's own
choice is a basic human right, still people with radical mindsets and narcissist
approach in order to suppress other religion people commit such crimes. In fact, the
major chunk of death can be seen happening through this source of crime. i.e. major
terrorist activities.
● Unfair judiciary- People who are not served justice become hostile and often engage
in crimes.

CRIME PREVENTION APPROACHES

As discussed above, crime prevention is mainly related to the functioning of the Governments
in the same context, but with the change in time, a wider spectrum of the same could be
observed, which refers to crime prevention as the range of strategies that are implemented by
communities, individuals, organisations and all levels of Government to target the various
social and environmental factors that increase the risk of crime, disorder and
victimisation. 3Various models have been developed to categorise the wide range of activities
which help in crime prevention. Following are the various contemporary approaches to crime
prevention:-
● ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH-
It includes situational crime prevention techniques and a vast urban development initiatives
which aim to modify the physical environment to reduce the chances of crime to occur. 4 This
concept is in short known as CPTED which means Crime Prevention Through Environmental
Design. This approach not only relies on the traditional criminal justice system, but also on
the modern day planners, developers, managers of public places etc.

3
Dr. Swikar Lama, Asstt. Professor, Sardar Patel University of Police, UGC E- Pathshala, (June 19, 2020, 4:28
PM).
4
Professor PremaJanardan, Approaches and Strategies of Crime Prevention.
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This approach runs in the presumption that crime is never going to stop and will keep on
happening no matter what, this is is the technique to design the environment in such a manner
which would prevent crime to the most extreme extent.
This approach seeks to change the specific characteristics of the environment that may cause
criminal events to occur. This approach works by including both situational approaches to
prevention of crime as well as border planning initiatives. Thus, it works by designing or
modifying the physical environment to diminish the opportunities of crime to occur.

● SOCIAL APPROACH
It is focused on the social and economic causes of crime like, limited access to housing, lack
of social cohesion etc and on limiting the duly of the offenders' requirements. It also includes
developmental approach as well as community approach. This measure includes those
methods which take comparatively more time to produce the results.
For this approach to succeed, one of the most useful step is nationwide campaigning which
would reignite the core values of the nationals and educate people to nurture women and
children.
● CRIMINAL JUSTICE APPROACH
It refers to those various programmes delivered by bodies of police, courts that aim to prevent
crime among those people who have already engaged themselves previously in some
gruesome heinous act and later on come in contact with the criminal justice system.
Correction homes and juvenile homes are a good example of this system.

1. SITUATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION

This system has been based on the principle that crime is usually opportunistic and thus, aims
to control the contextual factors to limit the opportunities for offenders to engage in criminal
acts. Thus, any system that helps to reduce crime by subtracting the favourable factors to
crime, fall under this category.
Situational prevention comprises a range of measures that showcase the necessity of aiming
at very specific forms of crime in specific circumstances. It involves identifying,
manipulating and controlling the other factors associated with major criminal activities.
Under this approach, there are 4 key elements, which are:-
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 1. Routine Activity- Under the premise of this theory, three critical elements must occur
simultaneously for a crime to take place, viz., A motivated offender, a suitable target
and absence of capable guardian.
2. Crime pattern theory- This theory focuses to elaborate the impact of communities
and societies which may lead to be welcoming crimes in day to day lives.
3. Rational research theory- This theory has a more independent motive and revolves
around the decision making process that results in an offender choosing to become
involved in crime or specific sort of criminal activities, including weighing up the
relative risks and rewards linked with offending.

2. SOME OF THE PREVENTIVE MEASURES UNDER

THIS SYSTEM
● Adding up to the effort involved in crime;
● Increasing the risk involved in the offence;
● Decreasing the reward associated with the crime;
● Reducing factors that impact the propensity on a person to offend.
This relative simple classification scheme provides a very useful framework for discussing
the range and variety of situational methods to those working in crime prevention. Situational
approaches are most common in the UK where they involve it at a specific time period at a
specific area and also involves a thorough analysis of the criminal activities possible and their
consequences. It also requires strong project management skills and comprehensive
implementation planning that describes the key stages in project delivery and committees for
the same.

3. DEVELOPMENTAL CRIME PREVENTION

This system of crime prevention is rapidly growing in the west and can be seen to evolve in
the other parts of the world as well. The successful development of this system includes the
rise in importance of timing and intervening at critical situations, such as time to stress or
when people are open to external influence. It also includes the need to target multiple risk

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factors due to their cumulative impact, with bias towards those factors regarded as having
maximum influence several offence types

4. OTHER APPROACHES
● Localise programs that bring to people's knowledge about the mala fide intents that
lead a person to commit crime and its drawbacks.
● Setting up neighborhood watch for patrolling and making sure that the locality is well
lit.
● Maximising the use of virtual platforms with apps like McGruff Mobile that virtually
keeps an eye into the neighborhood and helps the people to share photos and video
clips related to the crime.
● Making self help groups and organising campaigns to educate the people, especially
the youth and teenage kids who are most prone and vulnerable to such situations. 5

5. CONCLUSION
Thus, the conclusion from this whole piece of work depicts that alone the government can not
do any good to improve the crime scenario in the society, other than that, mere participation
on individual level will also do no good in context of the same. A systematic and scientific
approach with proper study and knowledge of the consequences is required to improve the
same.

5
Cody Culver, 10 Ways To Prevent Crime In Your Community, JUST GIVE, (June 20, 2020, 10:54 PM),
https://justigive.org/2015/08/03/10-ways-to-prevent-crime-in-yoir-community/.
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