Crime and the Everyday:A challenge to policy and practice

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Crime and the EverydayA challenge to policy and
practice
Alan France University of Sheffield
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The myth of youth crime

• Stable to declining levels of youth crime
• The emergence of anti-social behaviour
• The (mis) Representation of youth crime the
  role of politics and the media

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Policy assumptions and approaches to tackling
the youth crime problem

• Criminal and none criminal pathways
• Crime as individual responsibility / activity a
  deficit model
• Bifurcation of policy Popular punitiveness
  verses early intervention
• Riskfactorology and expanding assessment
  culture
• Moving the young from anti social to pro-social
  trajectories

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Crime and the everyday

• Crime as routine and ordinary part of everyday
  life the impact of geography
• Experiences of crime - Witnesses, victims and
  perpetrators
• Definitions of crime violence and fighting
• The marginalizing of crime in dealing with
  complex lives

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Managing Crime in the everyday

• Fluid and changing pathways in, out and back in
  again
• Managing difference crime and social inclusion
• Crime and the mundane finding pleasure in
  difficult lives
• Strategies for avoiding criminal careers

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The challenge to policy

• Lack of attention to victims and witness
• False dichotomy criminal and none criminal
  problems with notion of pathways?
• Lack of recognition of resilience and young
  peoples efforts to manage crime
• Problems with individualistic risk factor model
• Crime as social activity
• Managing risk rather than risk factors
• Risk and protection false dichotomy