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Criminal Psychology

Zero tolerance policy and its influence on crime

  • 2 things to know
  • Component 03

Overview

Recall questions on anonymity on large estates, zero tolerance policing in New York and its criticisms, why falling crime does not prove it worked, community policing, predicting outcomes from broken windows, and whether disorder causes crime.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What is a zero tolerance policy?

Key term

Why is it difficult to prove that disorder causes crime rather than the reverse?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How does anonymity in a large, run-down estate contribute to offending?

    Model answer

    Where no one knows anyone, offenders feel unidentifiable and unaccountable, a state of deindividuation in which personal standards give way to the situation.

  2. 2

    What is a zero tolerance policy?

    Model answer

    A policing approach in which every minor offence is enforced strictly and consistently, on the reasoning that preventing small-scale disorder prevents serious crime developing.

  3. 3

    Which city is most associated with zero tolerance policing, and which offences were targeted?

    Model answer

    New York in the 1990s, where minor offences such as fare evasion, graffiti, public drinking and aggressive windscreen washing were rigorously enforced.

  4. 4

    Serious crime in New York fell sharply during the zero tolerance years. Why is this not proof that the policy worked?

    Model answer

    Crime fell over the same period in cities that had no such policy, and other things changed at once, including the economy, the age profile of the population, the decline of the crack market and a large rise in officer numbers.

  5. 5

    Give two criticisms of zero tolerance policing.

    Model answer

    It damages relations between police and communities, and it falls disproportionately on poor, homeless and minority ethnic people who spend most of their lives in public space.

  6. 6

    How does problem-oriented or community policing differ from zero tolerance?

    Model answer

    Rather than arresting for every minor offence, it works with residents to identify the underlying causes of recurring problems and remove them.

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