Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Chapter 14 Future Directions in Criminology “You can never plan the future by the past” – Edmund Burke ( )

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Learning Objectives  Discuss the importance of developing an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to the study of criminology.  Be cognizant of the dynamic nature of crime and criminality.  Recognize some of the likely future trends in crime and criminological research.  Appreciate the need to merge criminology and criminal justice issues.  Discuss the importance of comparative criminology in bridging criminological issues.

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Introduction  Criminology’s attempt to bridge theory and practice  Post-positivism and post-modernism, and the discipline in a state of flux  Can we merge criminal justice and criminology?  Continuing challenge of being relative and evolutive

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Frame of Reference  Ultimate objective “controlology”  Utilitarian principles  FOUR approaches:  Conservative  Liberal  Radical  Integrated and Interdisciplinary

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Conservative Approach  Social control over individual freedoms  Policing and “just deserts”  Focus on conventional crimes  Not “humanistic”?  Greater emphasis in political & power-based issues  Can law and order control crime?

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Liberal Approach  Crime product of:  social and economic circumstances  lack of opportunities  emphasize treatment and rehabilitation and….  Popular in recent years but only marginally successful

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Radical Approach  Reliance on:  unofficial sources  role of media and competing interest groups  power of capitalism  shift from offender to system  Short on solutions but helps to draw attention to broader issues

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Interdisciplinary Approach  Crime product of:  human behaviour = individual and his/her environment  Attempt to reconcile differences between other approaches  Bridge current fragmentation  BUT ‘growing pains’ Can we move from legalistic to humanistic- based discipline?

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Comparative Criminology  Practicalities being overcome  Advances in technology and methodology  Fattah: “provincial attitudes” slow to fade  Transnational crimes and price of globalization  Move beyond descriptive to a theoretical framework

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc The Knowledge Explosion  Expansive discipline = “criminological enterprise”  Number of disciplines with vested interest growing  Growing number of theories  Number of textbooks and journals (Canadian)  Causes of crime & criminality linked to multi- causality = integrated and interdisciplinary Is there a need for a paradigm shift?

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc The Future of Crime  The role of technology and opportunity for ‘new’ crimes  Debit cards and ‘crime wave’  Computer based crimes  International sex trade, organ trade, smuggling of illegal foreigners  Trans-nationally based organized & corporate crime  International terrorism, money laundering Will our current theories suffice to explain the new trends?

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Social Control: Prevention or Punishment?  Crime costs up; victim expenses up; and incarceration up  = need for cost-effective strategies?  What works and what doesn’t? [Figure 14-1]  Communities: community-based mentoring  Family-based: early infant & pre-school programs  School-based: innovative programs

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc What works and what doesn’t?  Policing: presence at “hot spots’  Importance of multiple risk factors  Developmental pathways  Opportunity reduction and social development  Primary vs. secondary vs. tertiary prevention  Bridging theory and practice  Re-integrative shaming, Restorative Justice

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Criminology and Criminal Law  Definition of crime dependent upon legal definition  Criminal law minimal impact on curbing crime  We need to rethink the role of law in crime prevention  Consider:  How did criminal law evolve and how will it evolve?  Does the law inflate crime statistics?

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc Expanding the Scope of Criminology  Role of science and technology vs. the role of criminal law  Expanding opportunities  Crime: The Elusive Enigma  Crime waves: “mental filters through which social issues are filtered”  Must learn to discern myths from reality

Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada Inc SUMMARY  Constructive social policy within a global social context  Moral responsibility?  Paradigm shift? Thinking outside of the box The gauntlet is before you….what will you do?