By: Paul van Soomeren

Paul van Soomeren — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 16:23:43 +0000

Thanks for this enlightened blog. Interesting: the 2015 Stockholm Prize in Criminology (the ‘criminal Nobel prize’) is for two pioneers in Situational Crime Prevention: Pat Mayhew and Ronald Clarke. This is a recognition for this straithforward simple approach of Designing out Crime, Situational Crime Prevention, CPTED or Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning. From the jury “The work of Ronald V. Clarke and Patricia Mayhew has helped re-shape crime prevention strategies world-wide to focus on changing the characteristics of the situations in which crimes repeatedly occur.” I completely agree with Guenter that we always must try to find betetr ways of preventing crime and find ‘new schools’. But at the same time: don’t throw old shoes away before you have new ones. What I still like very much in the old school Situational approach (SCP) is that there is not one big theory for crime in general. Instead SCP starts with a very specific type of crime en builds piecemeal Popperian theories from there. Vandalism in public transport is not a burgalry in a dwelling is not sexual violence against women, is not … I fully agree with Guenter that a more sophisticated approach to the human social interactions in specific crime situations is an interesting road to explore. But Always keep it Clarkarian simple: specific crimes are on the table, never crime and deviance in general. That’s too big to handle!

Comments on: Critical Realism and Urban Criminology

By: Paul van Soomeren