Designing out Crime

Edited by Len Garis Paul Maxim This book has been printed on forest-free Sugar Sheet™. Produced with the waste of sugar cane, Sugar Sheet™ reduces deforestation and greenhouse gas. It looks, performs, recycles, and costs the same as traditional paper, all with a low environmental impact. SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE CENTRE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH For more information about this book or its authors, contact Len Garis at the University of the Fraser Valley, B.C., at [email protected] or 604-543-6701. For additional public safety publications, visit http://cjr.ufv.ca Designing Out Editors Contributing Authors Len Garis Gurvir Brar Paul Maxim Kevin Burk Irwin Cohen Tim Croisdale Yvon Dandurand Jordan Diplock Trevor Johnson Adrienne Peters Darryl Plecas Julia Shuker © 2016 Len Garis, University of the Fraser Valley About the Editors Len Garis Fire Chief for the City of Surrey, British Columbia, Len Garis is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice & Associate to the Centre for Social Research at the University of the Fraser Valley, a member of the Affi liated Research Faculty at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, and a faculty member of the Institute of Canadian Urban Research Studies at Simon Fraser University. His focus is on addressing public safety challenges through evidence-based decision making and innovation. Paul Maxim Paul Maxim obtained his MA in criminology at the University of Ottawa and his PhD in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania where he specialized in criminology and research methods. He is currently a professor in the Department of Economics and the Balsillie School of International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. His primary areas of research interest are population and labour economics. Author Affi liations Chapter 1 – Problem-Solving to Ensure Eff ective Crime Prevention Jordan Diplock University of the Fraser Valley (British Columbia, Canada) Chapter 2 – Administrative and Regulatory Approaches Yvon Dandurand Trevor Johnson Julia Shuker Gurvir Brar University of the Fraser Valley (British Columbia, Canada) Chapter 3 – Transitions and Social Programming Adrienne Peters Memorial University of Newfoundland (Newfoundland, Canada) Chapter 4 – Designing Out Opportunities for Crime Jordan Diplock University of the Fraser Valley (British Columbia, Canada) Chapter 5 – Designing Out Crime through the Use of Technology Irwin Cohen Adrienne Peters Kevin Burk Memorial University of Newfoundland University of the Fraser Valley (Newfoundland, Canada) (British Columbia, Canada) Chapter 6 – Doing Something about Prolifi c Off enders Darryl Plecas Tim Croisdale University of the Fraser Valley California State University, Sacramento (British Columbia, Canada) (California, United States) Table of Contents Please note: Each chapter’s references are provided at the end of the chapter. Forward 1 Introduction 3 Chapter 1: Problem-Solving to Ensure Effective Crime Prevention 7 Chapter 2: Administrative and Regulatory Approaches 13 Chapter 3: Transitions and Social Programming 33 Chapter 4: Designing Out Opportunities for Crime 51 Chapter 5: Designing Out Crime through the Use of Technology 67 Chapter 6: Doing Something about Prolifi c Offenders 89 Conclusion 103 | 1 Forward esponding to crime has always been one of the Much of what is presented here is not new to great challenges facing municipalities. Citizens criminologists. Unfortunately, much of this material has Rexpect local government to protect them from not made it from the professional literature to those of us potential criminal activity and to respond swiftly and responsible for implementing crime-reduction strategies effectively when they are victimized. Consequently, law at the local level. As the authors suggest, it is unlikely that enforcement has become one of the largest cost items in we will ever be able to meet the utopian goal of a totally most municipal budgets. crime-free society. What we might be able to do however, is to reduce the opportunity for crimes to occur, respond Recently, most parts of Canada have seen a decrease in more effectively when crime occurs, and reduce the offi cially recorded crime. At the same time, however, the overall monetary and social costs of responding to crime. cost of responding to crime has increased for all levels of government. This is often most acutely felt at the local level where municipal governments are on the front line of law enforcement. In this regard, the City of Surrey in British Columbia is no different than most other communities in Canada. Mayor Linda Hepner City of Surrey The challenge we face is how to both reduce crime to British Columbia even lower levels and to fi nd ways to reduce the cost of responding to the crime that occurs. In this book, several local crime experts draw together what we know about crime and crime reduction to identify possible solutions. The overall theme the authors speak to is “designing out crime.” That is, what can local governments do to affect the physical and social structures of our communities to minimize the likelihood of crime occurring in the fi rst instance? 2 | Designing Out Crime 2 | 3 Introduction he book Eliminating Crime (Cohen et al., The cost of crime involves more than 2014) focused on seven strategies the police could employ to reduce crime. Despite just that attributed to the criminal our confi dence in the importance of those justice system. There are costs to Tstrategies and the ability of police to execute them, we are aware that the police alone cannot make crime go business, insurance costs, health care away. Crime prevention is a societal matter that relies and social service costs, and losses to on a commitment from the entire criminal justice individuals system plus the community at large to be successful. Furthermore, policing is expensive. Ironically, it is even more so when criminals are caught, because the rest of Overall, the cost to victims is exorbitant. For example, the criminal justice system is likely to be engaged. focusing on the economic impact of spousal violence in Canada for 2009, a recent Department of Justice To say that responding to crime is expensive is a Canada study estimated the total social and economic signifi cant understatement. Governments in Canada, cost at $7.4 billion. More signifi cantly, at least 80 per for example, collectively spend over $8 billion a year cent of that cost was picked up by victims (Zhang et on police services to fi ght crime. That is just the al, 2012). beginning: overall, Canada spends over $20 billion a year on its criminal justice system (Story and Yalkin, Reducing the cost of crime will remain challenging 2013). Compounding this is the observation that total because we keep changing how the criminal justice criminal justice expenditures climbed by more than 23 system responds to crime. Not long ago, the police per cent from 2002 to 2012. As Story and Yalkin note, investigation of a drug traffi cking case involved nine this growth occurred despite overall crime rates having steps—now it requires at least 65 (Malm et al., 2007). fallen by the same percentage during that period. Similarly, dealing with an impaired driver used to take Moreover, there is every indication that the cost of about one hour of a police offi cer’s time. Now it takes responding to crime, at least in terms of policing, an offi cer at least four hours. A domestic assault case will continue to increase unless we start doing things which used to take less than an hour to process now differently (Leuprecht, 2014; Kempa, 2014: RCMP, takes at least 10 hours. 2015; Home Offi ce, 2015). Much of this change has come from our demand We also need to be aware that the cost of crime that police offi cers work in ways that facilitate involves more than just that attributed to the criminal more rigourous prosecution requirements and that justice system. There are costs to business, insurance provide for greater accountability. It also comes from costs, health care and social service costs, and losses added offi cer health and safety concerns, improved to individuals in terms of missed work days, pain operational sophistication, and increased oversight and suffering, legal costs, and important quality of issues. Undoubtedly, these sometimes important life losses (see Cohen, 2000). There are also societal and necessary changes have consumed much of the and individual costs associated with the fear of crime criminal justice cost savings that might otherwise have (Dolan and Peasgood, 2006). come with the recent decline in crime. 4 | Designing Out Crime “We’ve had lots of good ideas about how to prevent crime and we’ve implemented some great strategies, but we failed to do any of it in a sustained, properly funded way” -Sgt. Brian Foote, RCMP (Ret.) Regardless, our view is that if we are to arrest the rising Still other strategies involve having citizens become cost of crime, efforts must be made to further reduce more involved as guardians of their homes and the volume of crime and the accompanying impact neighbourhoods though such efforts as Block Watch, on victims. We need to fi nd a way where we need Neighbourhood Watch, and Crime Free Multi- fewer police, fewer court offi cials, fewer correctional housing. Some have focused on using surveillance workers, and fewer of any other worker who makes technology such as CCTV and other camera systems, a living from the criminal justice system. We say this to deter offenders. Other strategies have focused on because the single largest cost of our criminal justice early intervention with at-risk youth while others have system is the salaries and benefi ts for people working focused on people already caught up in the criminal in the system. Given the increased complexities of justice system who have signifi cant predispositions responding to crime in the 21st century, we should not toward criminality (for example, substance abusers or expect the cost per criminal incident to decline soon.

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