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Scientific criminology has its roots in crime mapping. The first great systematic
studies of crime were cartographic exercises made possible by recordkeeping
systems created to track criminal convictions in France and England
during the early part of the 19th century. Compared with maps of demographic,
economic, and social data, crime maps established some of the great
and enduring facts of the science: crime in general is associated with the
distributions of youth, males, the poor, and of the poorly educated. Maps of
crime patterns in major American cities during the early 20th century reconfirmed
the 19th century findings, and added the observation that crimes and
criminals’ residences cluster in places predicted by urban form and transportation
network geometry and that those places exhibited little local social
organisation.
These broad criminological findings resulted in broad policy prescriptions
for crime reduction. The observations on the correlation of youth and
crime led to special handling for youthful criminals: juvenile courts, reduced
punishments, and special school programs. The observed correlation
between crime and males led to special programs aimed at males: organised
sports programs, industrial job training, and counselling. Most importantly,
the correlation between crime and poverty resulted in programs aimed at
the elimination of poverty and in social interventions aimed at improving
the organisation of impoverished neighbourhoods. Such programs were
especially prominent and especially well funded in the 1960s and 1970s, led
by the American “War on Poverty” programs which — although desirable
in their own right — were funded on the promise that crime would be
reduced.
Crime was
not reduced. Both violent and property crime rates skyrocketed.
Crime rates tripled between 1960 and 1980 in both the U.S. and Canada;
violent crime rates quintupled over the same period in England and Wales.
At the same time, criminology provided little that proved useful to law
enforcement. |
