“This paper consists of three parts in considering the issue of crime reduction. First, we focus on theoretical perspectives of crime reduction and then we engage in the debate about ‘Why crime rates fell’ in many Western countries. The final part tries to connect what seem to be rather different sets of results presented in the first two parts. Elsewhere we have stressed how over the past century or so, criminology has been the crucible for generating various theories about criminal behaviour. There has been an important tradition in developing perspectives that are directly relevant to the issue of crime reduction. Scholars such as Hope and Kahn have tried to put some order into the tremendous range of perspectives which have special relevance to crime reduction. This paper considers four paradigms derived from this body of work: a focus on parental child-rearing methods; a focus on structural factors relating to the family during adolescence; the notion that criminal behaviour is linked to localities, neighbourhoods; and, finally, a focus on the resource deficits of individuals.”
