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Dealing with Crime » Policing and Law Enforcement

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

Cambridge spec: 6.3.3

How effective policing strategies such as targeting and stop and search are
How effective surveillance, including digital surveillance, is
How situational crime prevention tries to stop crime before it happens
The difference between community policing and military style policing, and how well each works

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Can the police really stop crime?

Societies use the police and other law enforcement agencies to deal with crime. But how well does this actually work? In this lesson you judge the effectiveness of four things: policing strategies, surveillance, crime prevention and different styles of policing. Effectiveness means how well something achieves its aim, which here is to reduce crime and keep people safe. A good answer always gives strengths and limitations, and does not just say a method "works".

Key terms:

Policing strategy: a plan that the police use to prevent crime and catch offenders.
Targeting: the police focus their time and effort on particular places, groups or types of crime.
Surveillance: watching or monitoring people or places to prevent crime or collect evidence.
CCTV: closed-circuit television, a system of cameras that records what happens in a public or private place.
Situational crime prevention: changing a place or situation so that committing a crime is harder, riskier or less rewarding.
Community policing: police officers work closely with local people, are often on foot in a neighbourhood and build trust.
Military style policing: police use heavy force and equipment, such as riot gear and weapons, with a tough, strict approach to keeping order.

Policing strategies: targeting and stop and search

The police cannot give every place the same attention, so many forces use targeting. For example, they may send more officers to a neighbourhood where burglaries have risen, or concentrate on a gang that is responsible for many offences. Another strategy is stop and search, where an officer stops a person and checks them for things such as weapons or drugs.

✅ Strengths

Targeting uses limited police time where it is needed most. Stop and search may take weapons off the street and may deter people from carrying them. Visible officers can reassure local people.

❌ Limitations

Targeting some areas or groups can lead to unfair treatment and to more of their crime being recorded, so the pattern may look worse than it is. Stop and search can damage trust, especially among young people and minority groups. In some societies, many of the people stopped are not found with anything illegal.

Remember from the lessons on explaining crime that sociologists argue police targeting can shape the figures. Here the point is different: does the strategy work? It may reduce some crime in the short term, but if the people targeted stop trusting the police, they may be less willing to give information, which makes policing harder.

Surveillance

Surveillance is a very common way of trying to prevent and solve crime. It includes CCTV in streets, shops and car parks, and digital surveillance such as police monitoring online messages, social media and phone records.

Effective because: people who know they may be recorded may think twice before offending. Footage gives clear evidence to identify offenders and may help to convict them. Online monitoring may help police find a crime that is being planned.
Less effective because: cameras cover only some places, so offenders can choose another one. Offenders may hide their faces or use secure, hidden online tools. Huge amounts of material have to be checked. There is also a worry about privacy: ordinary people are watched even if they have done nothing wrong, and information could be misused.

Crime prevention

Instead of catching offenders after a crime, crime prevention tries to stop crime happening in the first place. One approach is situational crime prevention. It does not try to change the offender. It changes the situation so that crime looks harder, riskier or less rewarding.

🔒 Make it harder

Better locks, alarms, fences and secure bike racks.

💡 Make it riskier

Street lighting, cameras, and neighbours who look out for each other, as in Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

💳 Make it less rewarding

Marking property with a code, or phones that can be locked remotely, so stolen goods are less valuable.

Strengths: it is often cheap, it works straight away and it reduces opportunities for the many people who might offend on impulse. Limitations: a determined offender may still get through. Crime may simply move to another place, which is called displacement. It also does nothing about deeper causes such as poverty or unemployment.

Community and military style policing

Police forces in different societies can work in very different ways.

👮 Community policing

Officers know local people by name, listen to their worries and work with schools and community groups. Effective because trust leads to more information and co-operation, and problems are dealt with early. Limitations: it takes many officers and a lot of time, and it may be hard to use in a very large city or in a place with a serious, violent threat.

🛡 Military style policing

Officers are heavily equipped and may use force to control crowds and gangs. Effective because it can restore order quickly and may deter serious violence. Limitations: it can frighten and anger local people, damage trust and make the police look like an enemy, so people may stop helping them.

Many societies use a mixture. They use community policing day to day, and keep specially trained, armed units for rare, serious situations.

Worked example

Question: How effective is CCTV?
Point: It is fairly effective in the places it covers.
Explain: People who see cameras may be put off offending there, and the footage can identify offenders afterwards.
Limit: It only covers certain places, so crime may move elsewhere, and it raises privacy concerns because everyone is watched.

Common mistakes

Saying the police "stop crime" without saying how. Giving only strengths or only limitations. Writing that military style policing is always bad, or community policing always good, when a balanced answer shows when each works. Mixing up surveillance (watching people) with situational crime prevention (changing the situation). Using a statistic you are not sure of: describe the pattern in words instead.

Exam-style question

(a) Define the term situational crime prevention. [2 marks]

(b) Give two examples of surveillance. [2 marks]

Model answer

(a) Situational crime prevention means changing a place or situation (1) so that committing a crime is harder, riskier or less rewarding (1).

(b) Any two: CCTV (1), monitoring online messages or social media (1), monitoring phone records (1), CCTV in a car park or shop (1).

(c) Any three explained: Officers get to know local people (1), so people trust them and are more willing to give information about crime (1). Officers hear about problems early (1), so they can deal with them before they become serious (1). Working with schools and community groups (1) helps to stop young people drifting into crime (1). Local people feel safer and see the police as on their side (1), so they co-operate more, which makes law enforcement easier (1).

Exam tip

For "explain three reasons why... effective", give three different reasons and link each one to the result with a "so" or "which means". Do not just list the three.

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