NCJ Number
117203
Date Published
1988
Length
11 pages
Annotation
An epidemiological approach to analyzing crime and developing crime control policies and programs is described, with emphasis on its application in two urban areas with high crime rates.
Abstract
The epidemiological approach rests on concepts from medicine, especially public health. It differs from the clinical approach in that it focuses on society or a subset of society rather than on the individual. Thus, it recognizes crime as the result of factors and conditions surrounding the interaction of the individual and the environment. A genuine epidemiological approach has five characteristics that are lacking in the pseudo-epidemiological approach. These characteristics are 1) fundamental society-altering goals; 2) adequate front-end data collection, analysis, and theory articulation; 3) the use of a reward and penalty system analogous to that in the private sector, 4) genuine community leadership and involvement, and 5) adequate involvement of the bureaucracy. The crime control projects operated in two urban areas referred to as Waterloo Station and Victoria Station illustrate the pseudo-epidemiological approach and the genuinely epidemiological approach. Police agencies have had limited success in using the clinical approach. New forms of police agency will be needed to implement the epidemiological approach. Figures and 9 references.