learning about criminal activity police reports: possible bias, seasonal variation, special events...

Learning About Criminal Activity

•Police reports: possible bias, seasonal variation, special events may change practices, individual may not report certain crimes to police, biases of police my influence arrests.

•Victimology: corrective for police reports since individuals will record crimes not reported and provide explanations.

•Self-reports of criminal activity: gives perspective on extent of problem, allows check of possible police biases•

Youth Self-Reported Delinquency, Toronto, 2006Juristat

Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics

Vandalism

Assumption: Vandalism is not chance or senseless behaviour, but is determined (i.e., it has a cause and just doesn’t happen) like any other behaviour.

Vandalism is not a crime in the Canadian Criminal Code

Statistics on vandalism are not reliable, but are only very crude guestimates of the actual situation.

Note: The sections on arson and theft are also applicable!

Learning About Criminal Activity

•Police reports: possible bias, seasonal variation, special events may change practices, individual may not report certain crimes to police, biases of police my influence arrests.

•Victimology: corrective for police reports since individuals will record crimes not reported and provide explanations.

•Self-reports of criminal activity: gives perspective on extent of problem, allows check of possible police biases•

Youth Self-Reported Delinquency, Toronto, 2006Juristat

Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics

Hypothesized Causes of Vandalism

• Social decay• Inadequate parenting• Lenient courts• Boredom• Conformity pressure• Developmental causation• Aesthetic causation• Environmental factors• Deindividuation (anonymity)

S. Cohen’s Typology of Vandalism

Vandalism as institutionalized rule breaking:• Ritualism• Protection• Play• Writing off• Walling in

Ideological vandalism

S. Cohen’s Typology of Vandalism

Conventional vandalism:

• Acquisitive vandalism

• Tactical vandalism

• Vindictive vandalism

• Play vandalism

• Malicious vandalism

What’s Wrong with this School?From Zeisel, J. (1976). Stopping school property damage: Design and administrative guidelines to

reduce school vandalism. Arlington, VA: American Association of School Administrators and Eductional Facilities Laboratories.

• Accessible rooftops• Hidden doorway niches• Inviting unplanned hangouts• Misplaced decorative plantings• Vulnerable playground windows• Unnecessary door hardware• Visible panic bars• Unclear entry statement• Graffiti• Misplaced planned pathways• Reachable wall lettering

What’s wrong with this school?From Zeisel, J. (1976). Stopping school property damage: Design and administrative guidelines to

reduce school vandalism. Arlington, VA: American Association of School Administrators and Eductional Facilities Laboratories.

• Accessible rooftops• Hidden doorway niches• Misplaced decorative plantings• Vulnerable playground windows• Unnecessary door hardware• Unclear entry statement• Graffiti• Visible panic bars• Misplaced planned pathways• Reachable wall lettering• Iniviting unplanned hangouts

Aesthetics and Vandalism

• Based on the work of D. Berlyne at U of T on intrinsic motivation

Implication: Choice of vandalized objects are not randomly chosen

Relevance of aesthetic theory


• Based on the work of D. Berlyne at U of T– Intrinsic Motivation = we engage in behaviours

because we find them enjoyable– Aesthetics = the branch of philosophy that deals with

the nature and expression of beauty– Berlyne: We can understand aesthetics by looking at

drive theory– Drive theory is related to strength of nervous system

research– Application of drive theory to vandalism

• Implication: Choice of vandalized objects is not random


Factors in aesthetics responsible for pleasure:

• Complexity• Expectation• Novelty• Intensity• Patterning


Three stages of the destruction process:

1. Predestruction (alteration may be pleasing)

2. During destruction (complex, unexpected, and novel damage will be perceived as fun)

3. Postdestruction (the cycle may start again)


The enjoyment of destruction derives primarily from the visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic (kicking, striking) stimuli during destruction.

If breakage is:• More complex• More unexpected• More novel

Then there should be more enjoyment aroused

Postdestruction: The anticipation of an object’s appearance after breaking may contribute to the destruction decision.


Pleasurability from destruction

1. Mirror glass (most pleasurable)

2. Plate glass

3. Tiles

4. Wood

5. Metal (least pleasurable)

Deopportunizing Design

Assumptions:

1. Vandalism is opportunistic

2. Behavioural controls are similar for vandalism as they are for other environmental behaviours

Analogy:

Target hardening : boxing

Deopportunizing design :aikido


Deopportunizing a setting means:

• Design out the ways and means a setting can be damaged

• Designing in the props and cues that encourage nondestructive use

Different setting will have different features that invite vandalism and require various kinds of controls to inhibit it


Three principles of deopportunizing design:

1. Encourage an attitude that is incompatible with images or activities that lead to damage (this is similar to Wolpe’s notion of reciprocal inhibition). Provide cues or props that channel the user’s attention away from potentially damaging activities

2. Reduce the effects of natural processes on which vandals can build

3. Decrease vandal’s reward—make objects less fun to play with

Strategies for Vandalism Reduction/Prevention

• Target hardening• Public education• Increasing security• Creating inhibitions against targets• Increasing severity of punishment• Recreation—provide acceptable outlets for the vandal’s

energy• “Deopportunizing” design concepts• Design for defensible space• Censorship/media “cooperation”

Intervention Strategies

1. Varied response may be necessary

2. Community level approach

3. Indentify the nature and extent of the problem

4. Interventions based on an assessment of the problem

5. Evaluation of the costs and benefits of the intervention strategy

6. Design a programme evaluation prior to implementation

7. Document the programme evaluation

learning about criminal activity police reports: possible bias, seasonal variation, special events...

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