ASSESSMENT 3: SHORT ANSWER RESPONSES

1013CCJ: Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice

Griffith University

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Course mode: Online

Instructions: Respond to TWO of the following short answer questions. Type

or paste your responses into the spaces provided. Refer to the assessment
instructions on Learning@Griffith for further guidance.
Module 9 Short-Answer (Policing and Crime Prevention): Many law enforcement
agencies use predictive policing to inform staffing levels and patrol allocations. Some of
these efforts have been successful, but they have also stirred up controversy. What are
the prospects and pitfalls of using this kind of approach in policing? (250 words, +/- 10%)

Predictive policing approaches and methods utilise geographic information and data-based
involvement models to decrease crime and enhance public safety. This is done by applying
innovative analytics to a variety of statistic collections combined with intervention styles
resulting in a more preventative action on crimes rather than reactive actions. With these
predictive methods, police and law enforcement agencies are able to deploy their resources
appropriately to better utilise their limited capacities. Predictive policing is used as an
enhancement to existing approaches of traditional policing such as problem-oriented
policing, community policing, intelligence-led policing and hot spot policing.
There are plenty of benefits that come from implementing predictive policing including
improved crime prevention, and better educated decision making. The key advantage of
predictive policing concentrates on the prevention of crime before it occurs established by
data-led and technological methodologies. By utilising available data and technology,
police are imparted with applicable information and specific focuses for intervention. This
data information also has a useful purpose of providing information to assist decision
making. Plaice and law enforcement can use this information for better informed decision
making in many areas such as predicting risks, offender identity defining and recognising
community susceptibilities.
While there are many benefits that come with predictive policing, there are also pitfalls
that police must be aware of when using this method including such as accuracy issues or
privacy and security concerns. As predictive policing relies heavily on data collection,
there has been concerns that portions of collected data may be too personal or invasive
raising issues on privacy rights. As mentioned before, this method is reliant on data
collection but quality of data collection may be compromised for example, inputs may be
outdated, biased or just wrong, this will result in inaccurate and unhelpful information.
Module 10 Short-Answer (Courts and Restorative Justice): The use of victim impact
statements has produced a fiery debate among scholars and justice officials: advocates
argue that the process provides important benefits for primary victims and the broader
community, while critics suggest that the process introduces biases that can substantially
disadvantage the offender. Weighing up these pros and cons, do you think Australian
courts should use victim impact statements? Contextualize and justify your
response. (250 words, +/- 10%)

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Module 11 Short-Answer (Corrections): The use of imprisonment is costly and produces
many ill-effects for offenders, leading to the principle that it should be used as a last
resort and be reserved for the most serious offenders. Advances in risk assessment tools
have introduced the hope of selective incapacitation, with proponents suggesting that we
could use prison only for those offenders that are predicted to reoffend. What are the
benefits and drawbacks of this approach? Should future risk be a sentencing
consideration? Explain your answer. (250 words, +/- 10%)

Selective incapacitation aims to protect the public and conserve restricted resources by
imprisoning only offenders who are the biggest danger to society. Risk is compared with
quality and amount of the offenders' crimes and probability of re‐offence using risk
evaluation established on numerical patterns. If offenders are believed to still pose a threat
to society following the completion of their original sentence and an evaluation,
correctional services can further detain the offender until they are no longer a risk.
Some benefits of selective capacitation include the potential to protect the public from high
risk offenders while effectively utilising limited correctional resources. This method would
be ideal if it was accurate in a large percentage of cases but unfortunately, this is not
always the result. Selective capacitation is commended as a systematic tactic of
incarceration but it is also highly condemned for false‐positive forecasts that raise
correctional costs and false‐negative forecasts that compromise the safety of public citizens
as the prediction of human behaviour is extremely complex.
Regarding future risk becoming implemented as a sentencing consideration, I believe that
the method of forecasting is unsuitable for consideration during sentencing. This is because
decisions made for an individual based on group characteristics would be hard to execute
as using historical collections data to calculate the way an individual is likely to behave in
the future cannot provide results that are sufficient and accurate enough to deliver
actionable evidence. Additionally, the usage of this method may be recognised as
advocating unjust stereotyping and an analytical disadvantage to certain demographics,
particularly racial minorities.