AJS 250 - Criminal Justice Crime Control Policies and Practices

3 Credits, 3 Contact Hours
3 lecture periods 0 lab periods

Focus on changing the distribution of crime opportunities rather than offender motivation. Topics include application of situational crime prevention strategies, problem-oriented crime control approaches, and crime prevention through defensible space.

Course Learning Outcomes

Identify major crime prevention/environmental theories.
Describe the four stages in the Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment (SARA) Model.
Explain the uneven distributions of crime in American society.
Use environmental design theory to design crime control strategies.
Discuss the major criticisms and ethical concerns as well as likely effectiveness relating to crime prevention.

Outline:

Introduction to Environmental Criminology
1. Focusing on criminal events
2. Problem-oriented policing
3. Crime opportunities
4. Crime hot spots
Problem Identification
1. The Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment(SARA) Model
2. Data collection
3. Crime opportunity structures
4. The rational choice perspective
Situational Crime Prevention
1. Routine activities
2. Types of controllers
3. Crime pattern theory
4. Offender targets
Crime Prevention through Environmental Design
1. Defensible space
2. Offender adaptation
3. Crime displacement
Criticisms of Environmental Criminology
1. Crime mapping
2. Challenges