Public HealthCriminal deterrence as a public health strategy
Section snippets
Criminal deterrence in medicine
Research on criminal deterrence indexed in Medline in the past 10 years is sparse and has focused on the extent to which people can be deterred from causing injury through alcohol-impaired driving. Various measures have been assessed, including law reform, new criminal laws, law enforcement (especially in relation to lowering the legal limit for driving), and various naming and shaming techniques for people convicted of alcohol-impaired driving.6 This research has shown that women and men are
Criminal laws
An interesting development in medicine has been the study of the effectiveness of criminal laws by epidemiologists. The introduction of laws requiring gun owners to keep firearms locked away was associated with reductions in accidental deaths of children.17 Evaluation of state laws that restrict handgun purchases has shown reductions in violent offences.18 Improved law enforcement has also been the basis of prevention of alcohol-related violence in Australia.19 The findings of these
Police response
Although increases in the likelihood of conviction probably reduce overall rates of injury from assault, the manner of police response to certain types of violent offences is important. Indeed, some police responses to domestic violence can increase risk of injury for victims. For example, if offenders are present when the police arrive, or if offenders are unemployed, or live in urban areas of concentrated poverty, the chance of repeat assault by the perpetrator after an arrest can be
Human rights issues
Deterrent measures can threaten or infringe human rights and impose substantial burdens in some circumstances.30, 31 Repressive regimes and illegal paramilitary organisations are often characterised by brutal attempts to deter. This fact emphasises the need to deter only in the context of a sound legal and ethical framework that safeguards the rights of citizens, families, and detainees.
Demographic factors
Demographic forecasts of US violent crime rates from 1975 to 2000 anticipated the peak in 1980 and the fall in the early 1980s, but did not predict the sharp decline in homicides since 1991.33 Overall, black males aged 14–24 years contributed disproportionately to homicide offence rates (figure 3): during 1988–98 they represented about 1% of the population but constituted 9% and 17% of victims and perpetrators, respectively, in 1988, and 17% of victims and 30% of perpetrators in 1998.33
Economic factors
Economic explanations, in particular, market wages, for reduction in homicides in the USA are also potentially relevant. Importantly, however, whereas youth wages first started rising in 1993, after an almost continuous fall from 1979, homicide rates peaked in 1991, and the 4% rise in wages to 1997 was not large enough to explain the overall reduction in homicide. At best, rising wages could have had a supporting role.36 This conclusion is consistent with the findings of a cohort study of
Police work
Increases in the number of police in the USA do not seem to have had an independent or consistent role in reducing violence.38 Further, although police-community partnerships can reduce violence, these were neither prevalent nor effective enough to explain reductions in US homicide.38 Assessments of generic zero-tolerance (strict enforcement) policing have been hampered by simultaneous implementation of other police interventions, but, overall, evidence of effectiveness is equivocal.38
By
Imprisonment
A potential contributor to decreasing offence rates has been the quadrupling in imprisonment rates in the USA since 1980, at an increased yearly cost of more than US·20 billion. In this case at least, estimates of the contribution of incapacitation to overall declines in crime rates have been calculated. Incarceration could affect crime rates through deterrence, isolation of offenders, and reductions in number of victims, since offenders are especially vulnerable to injury.46, 47 In accordance
Conclusion
The wider public-health agenda acknowledges the contributions of economic conditions, housing, education, transport, and crime reduction to health.48 It is harder, perhaps, to think of police and other criminal justice services as equally important as these factors, though evidence relevant to this agenda includes a recent analysis of criminal deterrence and sentence severity.24 A main aim of recent public-health research strategies in the UK has been to make the best use of current knowledge,49
References (52)
Violence in public health and preventive medicine
Lancet
(2000)Reducing gun deaths in the USA
Lancet
(2000)- et al.
The specific deterrence of administrative per se laws in reducing drunk-driving recidivism
Am J Prev Med
(1999) - et al.
Evaluation of a method for reducing unlicensed driving: the Washington and Oregon license plate sticker laws
Accid Anal Prev
(1997) - et al.
Evaluation of red light camera enforcement
Accid Anal Prev
(1999) Emergency department—police collaboration to prevent violence
Ann Emerg Med
(2001)- et al.
Victim as offender in youth violence
Ann Emerg Med
(1995) Two treatises of government
(1690)- et al.
Reducing offending: an assessment of research evidence on ways of dealing with offending behaviour
(1998) - et al.
Violence as a public health problem
J R Soc Med
(1993)
Strategies to reduce driving under the influence of alcohol
Annu Rev Pub Health
Gender differences in the control of alcohol-impaired driving in California
J Stud Alc
Random breath testing in Australia: getting it to work according to specifications
Addiction
Trends in drinking driver fatalities in Canada
Can J Pub Health
Drivers' differential perceptions of legal and safe driving consumption
Addiction
Confronting drunk driving
Population level policies on alcohol: are they still appropriate given that “alcohol is good for the heart”
Addiction
Learning theory approach to the deterrence of criminal recidivism
J Abn Psychol
State gun safe storage laws and childhood mortality due to firearms
JAMA
Effectiveness of denial of handgun purchase to persons believed to be at high risk for firearm violence
Am J Publ Health
Carvolth R Preventing alcohol-related crime through community action: the surfers' paradise
Handgun regulations, crime, assaults and homicide: a tale of two cities
N Eng J Med
Crime and Justice in the United States and in England and Wales 1981–96 (NCJ 169284)
Changes in crime and punishment in America, England and Sweden between the 1980s and the 1990s
Studies Crime Prevent
Effectiveness of urban centre CCTV to prevent violence
J Accid Emerg Med
Criminal deterrence and sentence severity: an analysis of recent research
Cited by (37)
Reprint of “Media reporting of traffic legislation changes in British Columbia (2010)”
2016, Accident Analysis and PreventionCitation Excerpt :Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) are a major public health problem. Traffic laws designed to deter dangerous driving are known to reduce road trauma (Morrison et al., 2003; Traynor, 2009; Shepherd, 2001). For deterrence to be effective, the public must be aware of the laws and have the perception that the probability of being apprehended and punished for breaking them is high (Stafford and Warr, 1993; Wright, 2010; Nagin and Pogarsky, 2001).
Alcohol and drug use by Spanish drivers: Comparison of two cross-sectional road-side surveys (2008-9/2013)
2015, International Journal of Drug PolicyCitation Excerpt :Intervention in this area is a priority. A key factor for deterring DUI is to convince drug-using drivers that the risk of detection is high (Jones, Donnelly, Swift, & Weatherburn, 2006; Watling, Palk, Freeman, & Davey, 2010) thus, adequate law enforcement, and the continuity of roadside testing for drug use among drivers, play an important role (Shepherd, 2001; Watson & Freeman, 2007). For the European Project DRUID (Driving under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol and Medicines; http://www.druid-project.eu), roadside surveys were conducted in 13 European countries and results showed large differences in the prevalence of alcohol and drug intake by country (Schulze et al., 2012).
Media reporting of traffic legislation changes in British Columbia (2010)
2015, Accident Analysis and PreventionCitation Excerpt :Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) are a major public health problem. Traffic laws designed to deter dangerous driving are known to reduce road trauma (Morrison et al., 2003; Traynor, 2009; Shepherd, 2001). For deterrence to be effective, the public must be aware of the laws and have the perception that the probability of being apprehended and punished for breaking them is high (Stafford and Warr, 1993; Wright, 2010; Nagin and Pogarsky, 2001).
Sustainability of the effects of the demerit points system on seat belt use: A region-wide before-and-after observational study in Italy
2008, Accident Analysis and PreventionCitation Excerpt :Not only were seat belt prevalence levels maintained thereafter; further slight increases were observed for all vehicle occupant positions 15 months after the new legislation was enacted. When trying to understand how traffic law enforcement induces behavioural changes, some authors appealed to the deterrence model, that is the successful persuasion of offenders and potential offenders not to injure others through knowledge of criminal risks (Shepherd, 2001). According to this model, the effectiveness of a legal threat depends on the perceived certainty, severity and speed of the punishment in the event of a violation of the law (Desapriya and Nobutada, 2002).
Preventing violence - Caring for victims
2007, SurgeonPolicing the drunk driver: Measuring law enforcement involvement in reducing alcohol-impaired driving
2007, Journal of Safety Research