advamce crime theory
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2PublicHealthandCrime.pptx(2) Public Health and the Study of Crime Prevention
CJ 420 Advanced Theory and Policy
Dr. Spencer
The Public Health Model
Public Health Model
Public health – promotes and protects the health of ppl and the communities where they live, learn, work and play
Aims to PREVENT health problems
Promotes wellness by encouraging healthy bx
Vaccinations
Healthier workplaces
Improvements in hygiene and nutrition
Reductions in tobacco use
In public health, this means examining causes of disease, illness and injury
Problems in the natural and physical environments
Problems in the bx of individuals
Problems in how individuals interact with each other
This helps develop strategies to eliminate the causes or weaken their impact
Harm Reduction
Two examples of public health harm reduction include:
Smallpox vaccine
Polio vaccine
Both led to eradication of these diseases
Public recognizes that not all harms can be eliminated – need to limit their negative impact
A good example of this is the reduction of tobacco use
Public education on the dangers of tobacco use
Raising cigarette taxes
Warning labels
Reduced smoking from more than 2 in 5 adults to almost 1 in 5 adults today
Harm reduction approach has prevented many cases of lung cancer, heart disease, and other health problems arising from tobacco use
Public Health and Crime Prevention
During the 1970s and 1980s public health experts turned their attention to violent crime
During the 1980s
homicide killed more than 20,000 Americans annually
Robberies numbered 1.4 m
Aggravated assaults number 1.8 m
Public health experts labeled violent crime a major health problem
Goal was to prevent violent crime
Led researchers to examine causes and ways to address it
Began to devote more time to evidence based prevention
The Three Level of Public Health and Crime Prevention
Primary prevention
Attempt to prevent the problem altogether
Address features of the social, physical, and natural environments that generate these problems
Poverty, joblessness, racial segregation, dilapidation in urban neighborhoods, male socialization
Many ppl commit crime bc they live in criminogenic conditions
Secondary prevention
Focuses on bx that puts ppl at greater risk for committing crime of becoming victims of crime
Focuses on things that put children at greater risk for becoming delinquent – developmental experiences
Tertiary prevention
Offenders are the focus
Arrest, imprisonment
Examines changes sin criminal justice practices and policies to more effectively prevent crime
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Studying Crime and Crime Prevention
Terminology
Sound research is needed to determine the causes of crime and assess the actual or potential effectiveness of various crime prevention strategies
Variables – any factor that can very from one person to another
Gender, age, income, criminal involvement
Ecological variables – differ from one geographic unit to another
Crime rates, education level, gun ownership, incarceration rates
Independent variable – effects or influences another variable
Dependent variable – is affected by the independent variable
Survey Research
Most popular method in CJ
Involves questionnaires administered to respondents
Self report survey – ask respondent how often they have committed particular offenses
Usually given to teens
Relationship with parents, grades, school activities, views about schooling, involvement with any delinquent friends
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) – ask households about experiences with victimization
Strengths
Can ask many questions
Can randomize sample
Allows the responses to represent the answers of the population that the sample represents
Can then generalize results to the larger population
Can be easily analyzed with software like SPSS – quantitative analysis
Weaknesses
Qs are often shallow
Not strong for assessing causation
Casual Order
Many variables will be correlated, but proving causality is trickier
“Correlation does not equal causation”
Suppose we find an association bt the quality if parental relationships and the extent of juvenile delinquency
Respondents with worse relationships are more likely to be delinquency
How do we know which variable is affecting which?
Could also be that they are reciprocal – each impacting the other
In cross-sectional studies cannot easy tell the causal order
Assess ppl at one point in time
Longitudinal studies – study the same ppl over time
Spuriousness
Exists when two variables are associated but only bc a third variable (antecedent variable) is affecting each of those two variables
Example: there is an association bt eating ice cream and crime rates
Antecedent variable is likely warm weather
Take the example on the prior slide bt relationships and delinquency:
Low income families are more likely to have strained relationships bt parent and teen (due to stress)
Family income could be impacting both the parental relationship and delinquency
When analyzing survey data, one way to test for spuriousness is to control statistically for all possible antecedent variables
It is still possible though for unknown antecedents to play a role
Spuriousness often cannot be completely ruled out
Sometimes though a variable cannot have antecedent variables
Age, gender, race
Qualitative Research
This type of research does not involve numerical data
1. field research – observing ppl in their natural settings
2. interviewing individuals one on one at length about their views, bx and/or perceptions regarding one or more topics
This type of research is less common in CJ
Offenders may not want ppl to observe or interview them
This type of research can provide valuable information on the causes and dynamics of criminal bx that aides in developing crime prevention strategies
Bc it does not use random samples – it often cannot be generalized beyond those observed/interviewed
Experimental Research
Very common in PS, less so in CJ
Can rule out issues of casual order and spuriousness
Have an experimental group and a control group
Subjects are ideally randomly assigned to the groups – rules out spuriousness
Also shows that the experiential variable occurs before the outcome
He gold standard of research is the randomized experiment
The reason we do not see this much in CJ is due to public safety issues
We are seeing it more often in crime prevention studies, esp. with policing
Again, if it does not rely on a random sample, it cannot be generalized
Evaluation Research
Assesses the efficacy of a policy or program by comparing outcomes before and after the implementation of the policy or program
Often studies recidivism
Important to remember that other factors could still be playing a role
