Problems With the Problem-Oriented Approach (From Politics and Practice of Situational Crime Prevention, P 9-23, 1996, Ross Homel, ed. -- See NCJ-167524)

• NCJ Number: 167525
• Author(s): D Gilling
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Crime Prevention Studies, Volume 5

Annotation

This paper evaluates the problem-oriented approach to crime prevention and raises questions about the extent to which the approach is likely to be realized in the process of translation from the realm of ideas to the realm of action.

Abstract

In particular, three barriers are considered that may stand in the way of realizing the problem-oriented approach's full potential: problems of responsibility, politics, and identification. The author acknowledges the problem-oriented approach has enormous potential and offers an alternative to the "nothing works" pessimism on which much crime control discourse is based. Given its tenuous position as a relatively new paradigm, however, the problem-oriented approach should not underestimate the strength of the opposition manifested in traditional perspectives and limitations of existing data sources and interpretive frameworks. 27 references