CJS 342 Crime Science

Crime science is an emerging field in criminal justice aimed at developing effective strategies and practices specifically designed to reduce and prevent crime through empirically based analyses grounded in testable social science theory. Conceptually, the crime science perspective is rooted in the neoclassical tradition as elaborated in rational choice and routine activities theories, social control theory, crime pattern theory, and situational crime prevention. Causes of crime are located within a dynamic framework of rational actors interacting in a social ecological/environmental context. Societal response to crime is drawn from various interdisciplinary contributions in such fields as urban planning and environmental design, statistics, sociology, psychology, forensics, policing, economics and geography. Crime science is contemporary to the development of crime analysis and crime mapping as well as the ?criminology of place?. Fall