Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) refers to the use of criminal prevention strategies aimed towards the reduction of opportunities of crime (IC, 2014). The opportunities of crime present themselves in the day to day life and activities. The strategies used in the prevention of crime include improving the surveillance in regions that are most likely to attract crime; focusing on potential criminal targets; deflecting potential criminals from areas that attract criminal activities (IC, 2014). Situational crime prevention is valuable because it prevents potential criminals from committing crimes. It also offers safety to the community while reducing the fears of crime. Property is protected from theft through the use of surveillance equipment such as closed-circuit television (CCTV). The potential criminals are aware that they are being watched via CCTV; therefore, they refrain from stealing property. The surveillance equipment helps in preventing crime because the potential criminals are not sure of the cameras that are placed on various points in the streets. They do not want to be caught committing crime on camera.
Crime displacement refers to the relocation of criminals or crimes due to the efforts being conducted by the police in the prevention of crime. Research shows that criminals tend to shift their criminal activities to other areas so as to keep away from heavy surveillance. Highly motivated criminals will always commit crimes in other places if it is not possible for them to commit crime in their present location. The various types of crime displacement include temporal displacement; tactical displacement; target displacement; type of crime displacement; spatial displacement; and perpetrator displacement. One example of a crime displacement is where the criminals change their targets. The criminals can stop robbing supermarkets and start robbing liquor stores. This kind of crime displacement is known as target displacement.
References
IC, (2014). Situational Crime Prevention. Institute of Criminology. Retrieved from: http://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/research/cpt/situationalprevention/
