Community Crime Prevention

Curriculum guideline

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Course
CRIM 3385
Discontinued
No
Course code
CRIM 3385
Descriptive
Community Crime Prevention
Department
Criminology
Faculty
Humanities & Social Sciences
Credits
3.00
Start date
End term
201920
PLAR
No
Semester length
15
Max class size
25
Contact hours
4 hours per week
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Field Experience
Learning activities

This course will employ a variety of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including:

  • lectures
  • audio visual material
  • small group discussions
  • research projects and research papers

Course description
This course focuses on primary and secondary approaches to the prevention of crime, in order to provide students with a conceptual framework from which they can evaluate and create programs to reduce crime in the community. The conceptual framework will draw from principles of community psychology, environmental criminology and security administration. The emphasis in the course will be on the “environment”, both the social, cultural and physical surrounding of crimes and finding ways, using planning, architecture, situational crime prevention and other tactics, to reduce the amount and spatial clustering or “hot spots” of crime.
Course content
  1. Introduction to Crime Prevention (CP)
  2. Theoretical Development of Community-based Crime Prevention
  3. Displacement, Human Mobility and Journey to Crime
  4. Crime Prevention and CPTED (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design)
  5. Urban Planning for Crime Prevention
  6. Situational Crime Prevention
  7. Evaluation of “what works” in Crime Prevention
  8. Problem Solving and Crime Analysis
Learning outcomes

After completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • THEORY
    • Apply the theoretical background of crime prevention
    • Explain how the environment influences behavior, mobility and crime opportunity
    • Utilize and apply the research base on journey to crime and displacement for prevention programs
    • Explain and apply the concept of ‘defensible space’
  • APPLICATION
    • Design and create primary, secondary and tertiary crime prevention programs
    • Design urban planning modifications for crime prevention efforts
    • Explain and apply CPTED techniques in a real environment
    • Explain and apply Situational Crime Prevention techniques in a real environment
    • Design environmental modifications and/or programs for obstructing and reducing the opportunities for the commission of crimes

Means of assessment

Evaluation will be carried out in accordance with Douglas College policy.  Evaluation will be based on the course objectives, and should include an applied group or individual project as a primary component of this applied course.  The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific evaluation criteria at the beginning of the semester.  An example of a possible evaluation scheme would be:

Midterm Exam  30%
Project Proposal  15%
Prevention Presentation  20%
Prevention Program (write up)  25%
Participation  10%
Total 100%
Textbook materials

Coursepack of relevant selected readings will be available, subject to copyright approval.

Texts will be updated periodically.  A typical example is: 

  • Steven P. Lab (7th edition). Crime Prevention: Approaches, Practices & Evaluation. Cincinnati, Ohio: Anderson Publishing

Prerequisites

15 credits of Criminology courses including CRIM 1150