NCJ Number
82843
Journal
PFA Schriftenreihe der Polizei - Fuehrungsakademie Issue: 4 Dated: (1980) Pages: 307-314
Date Published
1980
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The extensive West German Federal and State data gathering and analysis resources and capabilities should be utilized for examining individual crime incidents, a subject heretofore neglected in favor of general quantitative analyses.
Abstract
An understanding of single criminal incidents in terms of the factual event and its generating circumstances makes it possible to draw implications for crime control and prevention. The analysis should identify the facts of the event: perpetrator, time, place, victim, object, means, and sequence of the criminal act. With such information, the criminal act as process can be reconstructed, yielding insights into offender interaction with the victim and the social environment. The second aspect of the analysis should seek to understand the crime-contributing circumstances by focusing on the offender and on the environmental situation in which the offense was committed. The offender's socialization background, socioeconomic status, and personality features should yield indications of motivational factors and of the level of conscience development. The situation in which the crime was committed can be assessed for crime conducive opportunities and conditions. Emerging from all these considerations are insights on which technical crime countermeasures can be based at the personal level and by which official law enforcement and crime prevention strategies can be improved. They have implications for social and educational crime prevention planning, law enforcement administration, and crime preventive policymaking in general. A table and 12 footnotes are supplied.