NCJ Number
144795
Date Published
1993
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This introductory report for an international conference on "Social Changes, Crime, and Police" provides an overview of the relationship between social changes and crime, the role of the police amidst social changes and increasing crime, and the development of crime control policy.
Abstract
Current social changes have been determined primarily by revolutionary achievements in science and technology. Advances in telecommunications, traffic facilities, the production of weapons of mass destruction, and improvement in the means of production require new structural and ideological forms for human coexistence. Rapid technological development is changing economic and cultural structures. Social changes that particularly influence crime patterns are the development of an international economy and cooperation, the weakening of centralized state control, the growth of privatization, and the intensification of social inequalities. Crime is increasing in the midst of this social change, due largely to injustices in social conditions, misconceived ideologies, the lack of appropriate knowledge, the abuse of alcohol and other drugs, disorganized communities, and inadequate crime control policies and structures. Policing in the midst of social change and increasing crime requires cooperation between the police and communities to address criminogenic conditions, mount communitywide efforts against criminal behavior, and reinforce the norms of law-abiding behavior. Crime control policy must focus not only on a retributive response to crime after it happens but also on the forging of policies designed to prevent crime and develop structures for learning law-abiding behaviors. 33 references