CAN SOCIAL INTERVENTION REALLY REDUCE AND PREVENT CRIME OR ARE TOUGHER PRISON SENTENCES THE BEST STRATEGY?

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Anxiety about crime is not a newly found phenomenon. The academic analyses of crime firstly began in the nineteenth century through some biological and psychological explanations. It was then shifted into a more sociological approach in the 1950’s (Bilton, Bonnet & Jones, 2002:384). The existence of the criminal justice system as an instrument to prevent crime has also been developed for many years. However, later findings likely show that crime prevention needs to be put to practice not only within, but also outside the criminal justice system. It is commonly known as social intervention (Gilling, 1996:11). This essay will show that social intervention seems to be the best strategy to reduce and prevent crime. This essay will also discuss some major causal factors of crime, the social intervention and criminal justice system strategic approach to crime control, and how each strategy fulfils the main goals of crime reduction and prevention.

Bilton, Bonnet & Jones (2002:386) point out that according to the delinquent subculture theories, external social influences may have significant impacts on human behaviours. Graham (1998:7) identifies some of those external social influences as the ‘risk’ or ‘causal’ factors of crime. They include: poverty, poor parenting, poor education level, generational crime, and constant interaction with delinquent associations. Apparently, the way social structures are organized might be considered crucial in determining whether a society will have the tendency of committing criminal actions or not. As social problems are more likely the cause of most crimes, social intervention would seem to be an appropriate way of preventing it.

The basic purpose of social intervention is to try keeping the social ...

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... 4th edition. Basingstoke, Palgrave.
Gilling, D. (1996). Working with Offenders: Issues, Contexts and Outcomes. In May, T. & Vass, A. A. (Eds) Crime prevention. London, Sage, pp. 11-36.

Graham, J. (1998). What works in preventing criminality? In Goldblatt, P., & Lewis, C. (Eds.) Reducing offending: an assessment of research evidence on ways of dealing with offending behaviour (Vol. 187). London, Home Office, pp. 7-22.

Hope, T. (1998). Community crime prevention. In Goldblatt, P., & Lewis, C. (Eds.) Reducing offending: an assessment of research evidence on ways of dealing with offending behaviour (Vol. 187). London, Home Office, pp. 51-62.

Moxon, D. (1998). The role of sentencing policy. In Goldblatt, P., & Lewis, C. (Eds.) Reducing offending: an assessment of research evidence on ways of dealing with offending behaviour (Vol. 187). London, Home Office, pp. 85-100.

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