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Learning from Offenders: Some Iatrogenic Effect of Crime Prevention Measures

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Crime Prevention in the 21st Century

Abstract

There is a growing body of research on offenders’ perspectives: understanding why and how people commit offences gives clues to stopping and reducing the number and impact of incidents. While the process of learning from offenders is not unproblematic, one of the benefits is that it becomes possible to glean information about the strengths and weaknesses of different crime prevention measures. Indeed, while it is a given that crime prevention measures sometimes fail what is less in evidence is that they may also sometimes work in the interests of offenders. In borrowing a term from medical science used to describe the negative consequences of some treatments for curing patients, this chapter explores the ‘iatrogenic effects’ of crime prevention. It suggests that this may be a helpful way of understanding the implications of measures that don’t work as intended.

The author would like to thank Paul Ekblom, Charlotte Howell, Sarah Webb and two anonymous referees for advice on this chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The techniques can be found here: http://www.popcenter.org/search/?cx=016817335679885975849%3Agiidughzfro&q=25+Technique

  2. 2.

    Ben, Adam and Carl (all pseudonyms) were interviewed in prison on 15 January 2014, and Cyril on the 21 September 2012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Perpetuity Research & Consultancy International (PRCI) Ltd, 11a High Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN1 1UL, UK

    Martin Gill

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  1. Martin Gill
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Correspondence to Martin Gill .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Benoit LeClerc

  2. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Transcrime, Milano, Italy

    Ernesto U. Savona

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Gill, M. (2017). Learning from Offenders: Some Iatrogenic Effect of Crime Prevention Measures. In: LeClerc, B., Savona, E. (eds) Crime Prevention in the 21st Century. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27793-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27793-6_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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