Citation

Killias M. Eur. J. Criminol. 2006; 3(1): 11-31.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, European Society of Criminology, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1477370806059079

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Long-term trends in crime suggest that increases have usually been provoked by 'breaches', i.e. sudden new opportunities for offending that opened as a result of changes in the technological or social environment. Such 'breaches' often go unnoticed over extended periods of time. Once discovered, they provoke rapid increases in offences that usually provoke defensive actions aimed at curbing such developments. Once 'breaches' are closed, crime waves tend to fade away. Often 'breaches' open opportunities that are not (yet) covered by criminal law. Law-making has, over centuries, been aimed at filling such gaps. Interestingly, efficient preventive (e.g. situational) measures are envisaged only once the behaviour to be prevented has been made a crime through new legislation. Thus, preventive action and legislation are both responses to new opportunities that threaten important social interests, and it is 'breaches' that drive both prevention and legislation.