Crime control is concerned with reducing crime within a city or metropolis or society. This can be approached through either deterring crime or through law enforcement. Deterrment of crime is usually established via a punitive process. Examples of such include imprisonment, fines, or even capital punishment. The standard model asks us to analyze and establish prosecutorial powers and use this channel to affect crime control within society. By increasing prosecutorial powers, we will make it easier to punish criminals thereby reducing the incentive for committing crimes. Secondly, law enforcement generates crime control through a different channel. Strincter law enforcement and better policing will imply higher risk for criminals. There will be a higher chance that they will get caught leading to the punishments already created. This will help control crime by having criminals think harder before they commit crimes due to the higher risks of getting caught. Although crime control seems like a unilaterally positive policy within society, it does not come without costs.
Aside from the monetary costs, crime control comes at a social cost of individual liberties. With higher law enforcement and higher punishments, individual liberties can become compromised. The government decides what is considered a crime and these definitions may not always be in agreement with everyone in the population. We can contrast the crime control model with the due processes model. A simple explanation of a due process model is that it is based on a proposition that individuals have basic and absolute rights that can and should not ever be taken away. This process therefore focuses on individual liberties.
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