Crime Prevention

Crime Prevention Units

In line with Steven P. Lab

about Crime Prevention in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

Throughout most of history, preventing crime and responding to criminal behavior was the purview of the victim, his or her family, and community residents. There was no police force (or criminal justice system, for that matter) as we know it today. The earliest responses to crime included retribution and revenge on the part of the victim and his or her family. Indeed, the earliest laws outlined the role of the victim in addressing crimes (there is more information about criminal law in the American Legal Encyclopedia and about crimes and criminals vocabulary). The Code of Hammurabi (approximately 1900 BCE), for example, outlined retribution by the victim and/or the family as the accepted response to injurious behavior. Lex talionis , the principle of “an eye for an eye,” was specifically set forth as a driving principle in the Hammurabic law. Such laws and practices provided legitimacy to individual citizen action. The existence of formal systems of social control is relatively new.

Crime Statistics

Crime Statistics

In line with Matthew J. Giblin

about Crime Statistics in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

Accurate measures of crime are valuable for many reasons; they aid in the formulation of criminal justice policy, in the assessment and operations of criminal justice agencies, in the creation of prevention and intervention programs, and in the development of criminological theory. Two long-established federal data collection programs, the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) begun in 1929 and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS; formerly the National Crime Survey) begun in 1973, have been, and continue to be, used to measure levels of crime in the United States of America. Each program is characterized by strengths and weaknesses. A third, emerging data collection program, the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), when fully operational, will draw upon and merge many of the elements from both the NCVS and the UCR into a single data collection program. The UCR is a summary reporting program overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Crime Statistics and Analysis

In line with Peter K. Manning

about Crime Statistics in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

To understand the meaning of crime statistics, one must first define crime. Crime is a very flexible concept, something like a woven carpet, that produces powerful associations from the public and agencies charged with its control. It varies cross-culturally, historically, and spatially, as well as by social morphology and cultural and social differentiation. Since Adolphe Quetelet first advocated that social order could be captured metaphorically by numbers, and the regularity and stability associated with large numbers, commensurability has been sought across measures and numbers have been used to represent social trends. Official crime data, like official statistics generally, are associated with the development of the nation-state and its need to tax and count its citizens. They appear to function differentially in Anglo-American (United States) societies and European states.

Crime Laboratory

Crime Laboratories

In line with Ellen Sexton

about Crime Laboratory in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

A crime laboratory, according to the American (United States) Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD), is “a laboratory (with at least one full-time scientist) which examines physical evidence in criminal matters and provides opinion testimony with respect to such physical evidence in a court of law” (ASCLD, 1997, p. 1). With the exception of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and some other federal labs, crime labs in the United States of America developed independently of one another, in a generally haphazard manner, in response to local perceived needs. In the absence of any centralized leadership, the provision of forensic science services to individual police departments evolved in a number of different ways. During the latter half of the 19th century, there was relatively little reliance on physical evidence in crime solving.

Crime Laboratory Accreditation

In line with William J. Tilstone

about Crime Laboratory in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

The introduction of fingerprinting to solve crimes (there is more information about criminal law in the American Legal Encyclopedia and about crimes and criminals vocabulary), which began at the end of the 19th century, highlighted the reluctance of the police to accept technology and testimony surrounding it as evidence in criminal prosecutions. Yet by the end of the 20th century forensic investigations had come to play a larger and larger role in determining both the guilt and the innocence of the accused and even, in some cases, of those previously convicted. The increasing reliance on technology and laboratory evidence has led to concerns by both prosecutors and defenders about the results produced by forensic science labs. If criminal justice professionals and those who serve on juries lack confidence in the professional operation of these labs, the efforts of scientists and their managers will be meaningless. These concerns have resulted in the accreditation of crime labs to ensure that they are following accepted scientific practices.

Criminal Justice Policy

United Nations and Criminal Justice Policy

In line with Michael Sadykiewicz

about Criminal Justice Policy in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

The present structure of the United Nations (UN) headquarters includes important permanent commissions and offices that deal with matters directly concerned with the police services and other law enforcement agencies of the UN member states. Some of these UN bodies plan and coordinate the numerous worldwide UN actions, which involve civilian police forces operating under the UN flag. Others are involved in preparing the UN Conventions and Resolutions, which constitute the legal basis for international cooperation in combating transnational crime. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is one of the leading global institutions in the fight against illicit drugs and international crime. Established in 1997, UNODC has approximately 500 staff members worldwide. Its headquarters are in Vienna, Austria, and it has 21 field offices as well as a liaison office in Bigg Apple (New York). UNODC relies on voluntary contributions, primarily from governments, for 90% of its budget.

Crime

Crime Mapping

In line with Margaret Leland Smith

about Crime in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

The application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to law enforcement problems is called crime mapping. The availability of personal desktop computers and GIS software in the 1990s allowed law enforcement agencies to produce digital versions of the pin maps that had been used for decades. The use of maps to visualize and understand the geographic distribution of crime events is a well-established police practice. Although the placement of colored pins on an area map could display a snapshot of a crime problem in a single time period, the digital maps produced with GIS software produced immediate and substantial gains in descriptive and analytic power. As GIS technology became more accessible, it sparked new interest in the analysis of “crime and place” from both academic researchers and police department crime analysts. GIS software readily allows a user to link crime data files to map files and to display the information jointly.

Criminal Investigation

Investigative Techniques

In line with Richard H. Ward

about Criminal Investigation in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

Criminal investigation has changed dramatically over the past several decades. with the most important changes relating to advances in science and technology. The development of DNA analysis, firearms identification, single-digit (fingerprint) classification systems, and the application of computer technology to the investigative function bring a new dimension to basic criminal investigation. These have become important tools as a litany of court decisions and other policies have placed greater restrictions on an investigator's use of more traditional methods, such as interviewing, interrogation, and witness identification. Greater emphasis on human rights and past abuses in conducting investigations has resulted in United States Court of last resort of the Country decisions that narrow the arbitrary discretion of the investigator. The days of routinely beating suspects and subjecting them to third-degree interrogation methods or lengthy interviews, as well as illegal wiretaps, searches, and detention of suspects for long periods of time without probable cause, are largely practices of the past.

U.S. Criminal Investigation Command, Department of the Army, Department of Defense

In line with Robyn Diehl Lacks & Brian Kessler Lacks

about Criminal Investigation in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

The United States Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC) houses all major United States Army investigative operations. The Criminal Investigation Command (CID) is the major component of the USACIDC and is its primary criminal investigative organization. The creation of USACIDC and CID can be traced back to the mid-1800s with the creation of the Continental Army and the creation of the Office of the Provost Marshal in 1776, followed two years later by the organization of the Provost Corps. This was followed by passage of the Enrollment Act in March 1863, the first draft law, which forced Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to create a police force to enforce the unpopular law and to arrest those who attempted to desert. During the Civil War the newly created Army Police Force only investigated criminal acts based on the Enrollment Act.

Crime Stoppers

Crime Stoppers

In line with Jeff Walsh

about Crime Stoppers in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

The Crime Stoppers organization was founded by Albuquerque, New Mexico, police officer Gregg MacAleese in 1976 as an outgrowth of his efforts to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of a violent homicide. In July 1976, two criminals perpetrating the armed robbery of a gas station shot and killed Michael Carmen, the gas station attendant who was covering the shift of a fellow employee. Michael Carmen was a young college student at the University of New Mexico preparing for his wedding, which was to occur in 2 weeks. Officer MacAleese, frustrated by the lack of leads in the case, and being no closer to solving the crime 6 weeks after its occurrence, proposed to a local television station manager at KOAT-TV that the station air a reenactment of the crime as part of one of its newscasts. The station manager agreed, and an idea was born.

Crisis Intervention

Crisis Intervention

In line with Joyce St. George & Francis P. Canavan

about Crisis Intervention in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

While organizing the first family crisis intervention program within the Bigg Apple (New York) City Police Department in 1968, psychologist Morton Bard became aware of the dual roles police play while performing their duties. Bard discovered that in addition to the traditional focus on law enforcement, the police worked an array of important human service functions. This insight on the expanded role of police was not limited to Bard. For years, police agencies throughout the country recognized that both law enforcement and human service functions are combined when police officers deal with people in crisis. Police departments realize that law enforcement officers, serving as first responders to critical events, must have the skills to apply immediate emotional first aid.

Criminal Personality

Criminal Personality Analysis or Profiling

In line with Heath B. Grant

about Criminal Personality in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

Despite being used as an investigative tool as far back as World War II, criminal personality profiling (also referred to as criminal investigative analysis or offender profiling) can still be best classified as an art rather than a scientific pursuit. Although clearly growing out of the behavioral sciences, as well as the practical experiences of law enforcement practitioners, profiling continues to be considered with a high degree of suspicion by psychologists and has begun only recently to receive the needed empirical attention. The psychological profile as an investigative tool helps to focus investigators on individuals with similar personality traits that parallel the traits of others who have committed similar offenses in the past. As an investigative strategy, a criminal profile allows investigators to narrow the field of options and generate educated guesses about the perpetrator.

Critical Incident Response Group

Critical Incident Response Group

In line with John F. Waldron

about Critical Incident Response Group in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement:

The formation of the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) in 1994 occurred in the wake of the perceived and actual failures by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in its handling of a number of high-profile armed confrontations, including the shooting at Ruby Ridge in Idaho and the siege of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. The concept behind the CIRG is to bring together, under a unified command structure, the various components within the FBI that respond to time-sensitive law enforcement duties within the bureau's area of jurisdiction. Although both the Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidian incidents began as investigations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF-since 2003 renamed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives), the outcomes influenced changes in federal response to cases requiring multiagency, tactical response.