NCJ Number
84594
Journal
Impact Issue: 1 Dated: (1982) Pages: complete issue
Date Published
1982
Length
57 pages
Annotation
Five articles discuss various aspects of crime in Canada, including Canadian crime rates, public opinion polls about criminal justice trends, current approaches to crime and delinquency prevention, programs focusing on crime victims, and possible future trends of crime in Canada.
Abstract
Officially reported crime, as reflected in a selected violent and property crime index, has increased significantly during the last 20 years. Routine activity analysis, which examines incidents of crime taking into account target suitability, inadequate security, and offender characteristics, promises to be a fruitful approach to investigating this increase. While some polls suggest that Canadians are concerned about crime and feel criminals should be more harshly punished, other polls indicate that Canadians are not extremely disturbed about crime in their daily lives. More systematic research on public attitudes is required. A review of crime and delinquency prevention measures, categorized into three approaches (positive, defensive, and situational), indicates that the situational approach is the most cost-effective and applicable to Canada. Programs designed to help victims are making the criminal justice system more humane by minimizing the cost, trauma, and inconvenience to victims. Finally, a discussion of possible future crime trends concludes that new, sophisticated forms of white-collar crime will emerge in the next few years, and more cooperation between the public and private sectors will be needed to create a system-wide approach to crime prevention. References are given for each article. For individual articles, see NCJ 84595-99.