Link to Full Text
"From the US to Colombia to China, millions of public surveillance cameras are at the core of crime prevention strategies. Yet, we know little about the effects of surveillance cameras on criminal behavior, especially in developing economies. We study an installation program in Medellín and find t hat t he q uasi-random allocation of cameras led to a decrease in crimes and arrests. With no increase in the monitoring capacity and no chance to use camera footage in prosecution, these results suggest offenders were deterred rather than incapacitated. We test for spillovers and find no evidence of crime displacement or diffusion of benefits to surrounding locations."
Your resource for news, research, opinion and comment in the world of Criminology and Criminal Justice, brought to you by the Criminology Library, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto
Showing posts with label deterrence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deterrence. Show all posts
Studying Deterrence Among High-Risk Adolescents
"...In this bulletin, the authors consider - based on their review of recent evidence from the Pathways to Desistance study, a multisite, longitudinal sample of adolescent (primarily felony) offenders... several questions regarding how juvenile offenders assess sanctions and the threat of sanctions. Unlike most other research on serious adolescent offenders, the Pathways study draws from both interviews and official records from adolescence and early adulthood. The authors examine several questions related to deterring juveniles:
"...In this bulletin, the authors consider - based on their review of recent evidence from the Pathways to Desistance study, a multisite, longitudinal sample of adolescent (primarily felony) offenders... several questions regarding how juvenile offenders assess sanctions and the threat of sanctions. Unlike most other research on serious adolescent offenders, the Pathways study draws from both interviews and official records from adolescence and early adulthood. The authors examine several questions related to deterring juveniles:
- Do their offending and punishment experiences mold offenders' perceptions of risks and consequences of offending (which relate directly to their propensity to be deterred from crimes)?
- Does placing offenders in a correctional facility have any tangible deterrent effects?
- Does longer placement have a more deterrent effect on juveniles?
"The Death Penalty Has No Dissuasive Effect"
GENEVA - Capital punishment continues to exist because in some countries people are barraged with propaganda depicting it as a curb on crime, which it is not, said Federico Mayor Zaragoza, chair of an international commission against the death penalty that inaugurated its new headquarters in Geneva Monday.
Mayor Zaragoza, director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) from 1987 to 1999, said that is the case of right-wing Guatemalan presidential candidate Otto Pérez Molina, a retired general favoured to win the Nov. 6 runoff who has pledged to restore the death penalty to clamp down on rampant violent crime.
Read on...
Mayor Zaragoza, director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) from 1987 to 1999, said that is the case of right-wing Guatemalan presidential candidate Otto Pérez Molina, a retired general favoured to win the Nov. 6 runoff who has pledged to restore the death penalty to clamp down on rampant violent crime.
Read on...
New Briefing Paper: Deterrence – Effects of Certainty vs. Severity
We are pleased to let you know of our new publication, Deterrence in Criminal Justice: Evaluating Certainty versus Severity of Punishment by Valerie Wright, Ph.D. The report addresses a key concern for policy makers regarding whether deterrence is better achieved by increasing the likelihood of apprehension or increasing the severity of sanctions.
Overall, the report concludes that:
• Enhancing the certainty of punishment is far more likely to produce deterrent effects than increasing the severity of punishment.
• Particularly at high levels of incarceration, there is no significant public safety benefit to increasing the severity of sentences by imposing longer prison terms.
• Policies such as “three strikes and you’re out” and mandatory minimum sentences only burden state budgets without increasing public safety.
• Evidence-based approaches would require increasing the certainty of punishment by improving the likelihood of detection.
Read on...
This is from the Sentencing Project. Tom
Overall, the report concludes that:
• Enhancing the certainty of punishment is far more likely to produce deterrent effects than increasing the severity of punishment.
• Particularly at high levels of incarceration, there is no significant public safety benefit to increasing the severity of sentences by imposing longer prison terms.
• Policies such as “three strikes and you’re out” and mandatory minimum sentences only burden state budgets without increasing public safety.
• Evidence-based approaches would require increasing the certainty of punishment by improving the likelihood of detection.
Read on...
This is from the Sentencing Project. Tom
Quantifying the Specific Deterrent Effects of DNA Databases
Abstract
Re-offending patterns of a large cohort of offenders released from Florida Department of Corrections custody between 1996 and 2004 were analyzed to quantify the effects of DNA databases on offending patterns. Statistical models constructed to identify the specific deterrent effects of DNA databases distinct from their probative effects yielded mixed results. Small deterrent effects were found and for only some crime types (robbery and burglary). Strong probative effects were found for most crime types. Methods, data, results and implications are discussed in this report.
This report is from the Urban Institute. Tom
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)