NCJ Number
85475
Date Published
1980
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This article reviews recent trends in criminology and their impact on approaches to crime prevention and penal policy, and research needs in criminology are identified.
Abstract
In focusing on crime prevention and social control, criminology deals with primary crime prevention (constructing an environment that will reduce criminogenic factors), secondary prevention (early identification and intervention in the lives of those affected by criminogenic circumstances), and tertiary prevention (preventing an offender from repeating criminal behavior). Primary crime prevention may be approached by one or a combination of policies that focus on the development of positive socializing experiences for children and youth and the construction of a system of punishments that will make deviant behavior very costly. Criminological research focuses on the effectiveness of each of these policies in controlling crime. Secondary prevention requires that criminological research both identify criminogenic factors and those persons at risk of being influenced by them, as well as the effectiveness of various intervention approaches in countering the seeds of deviancy. Research in tertiary prevention involves determining those environmental and treatment factors that inhibit recidivism. Current policy appears to be divided between an emphasis on treatment which is expected to modify deviant behavior and an emphasis on deterrence and incapacitation through heavier penalties and longer imprisonment. Priorities for research are concerns of general deterrence, the problem of predicting dangerousness, the reform of criminal procedures, the handling of petty offenses, and probation and postrelease services, among others. Twenty-eight notes are listed.