ACR101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Victim Study, Prison Overcrowding, Pickpocketing
ACR101 Week Five
CRIME IN THE STREETS
Street Crime are acts defined as criminal and committed in public places such as streets,
shopping malls, train stations, parks and carparks. (Textbook definition)
E.g.
• Theft (stealing property)
• Robbery (theft with force or fear)
• Drug offences (using, selling)
• Alcohol-related offences
• Assault
• Sexual offences (indecent exposure --> sexual assault)
• Public order crimes (e.g. riot & affray; loitering; begging; vagrancy; language offences;
drinking in public)
Street crime and social control - closely entwined
Definitional constraints - hard to measure/compare across jurisdictions
Street crime as a measure of danger! Shapes our perceptions of crime - termed 'signal'
crimes.
The fear of the stranger. The fear of random crime plays a role in crime committed in the
home. Plays on people's emotions, making them feel unsafe where they should be safe.
Women are generally victims of assault compared to males, both in the home and in public
spaces. Men are far more likely to be assaulted in the workplace than women. Huge
emphasis on controlling people's behaviour in public.
SOME BACKGROUND:
• Long history linked to development of large cities
o Rapid increases in population, geographic density, concentrations of lower
classes in central areas
• Early understandings of 'crime'
o Response to crime vs social control?
o Focus on crime prevention
• Origins of police force
• Private/business interests protected with public resources - growth in private security
measures (unequal access to protection?)
• No problem with street crime until Industrial Revolution. Because it brought people
from the country and moved them to industrial cities to work in the streets. Rich
people would live quite close to poor people. Industrial revolution changed that
forever. It caused for a great need for governments to respond. This is the reason why
policing became state-controlled. 1989 this happened. Rich people needed protection
from poor people. They were going to make the place look untidy and needed to be
controlled. Unequal access to feeling safe is a strong theme due to money. Rich people
can afford to protect themselves such as with surveillance technology and the poor
cannot.
FEAR OF CRIME IN THE STREETS:
• "A bigger problem than crime itself" (Bannister and Fyfe, 2001 cited in Ross and
Hanley, 2017: p.135)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Construction of the 'other' (perceptions of class and race)
• 'Stranger-danger' - is it real?
• Different kinds of fear: 'Concrete fears' vs 'generalised anxieties'
• Females are traditionally 'taught' to feel vulnerable in streets more than males
• http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/parks-not-safe-for-women-says-homicide-squad-
boss-20150320-1m2rgc.html
• Fear of crime is a bigger problem than crime itself. Most women are assaulted by
people they kow. Does’t fit the thee of 'fearig stragers' ad 'strager-danger'.
SOME FACTS:
• Street crime is on the decline according to official data.
• Responses to 'public order' crimes shape this data significantly.
• Men are victims of violent street crime more often than women, but still more likely to
be assaulted at work.
• Women fear street crime more than men but are more likely to be assaulted in the
home.
• Most serious assaults do not occur in the streets but street crime continues to shape
perceptions, fears and media representations of crime concerns.
• Have a look at the graph of rates in textbook chapter.
VIOLENCE IN THE STREETS:
• The Night-Time Economy - cities need to run 24 hours a day. Pubs closed at 6pm in the
old days and people went home when it was dark. The night life attracts street crime
due to alcohol-fuelled violence. Governments like the night-time economy as
businesses are making money at all hours of the day. Alcohol is less accessible at night.
Alcohol regulation laws put in place.
o Economic activity taking place outside of working hours.
• The one-punch phenomenon
o An international concern
o Catalyst for legislative change
o 'cowardly punch'
POSSIBLE APPROACHES:
• Information and education
o Behavioural change around responsible drinking
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Street crime are acts defined as criminal and committed in public places such as streets, shopping malls, train stations, parks and carparks. (textbook definition) Street crime and social control - closely entwined. Definitional constraints - hard to measure/compare across jurisdictions. Shapes our perceptions of crime - termed "signal" crimes. The fear of random crime plays a role in crime committed in the home. Plays on people"s emotions, making them feel unsafe where they should be safe. Women are generally victims of assault compared to males, both in the home and in public spaces. Men are far more likely to be assaulted in the workplace than women. Huge emphasis on controlling people"s behaviour in public. Because it brought people from the country and moved them to industrial cities to work in the streets. Rich people would live quite close to poor people. It caused for a great need for governments to respond. This is the reason why policing became state-controlled.
