Psychology, policing and crime prevention. How to reduce crime and influence people.

Activity: Talk or presentation typesOral presentation

Description

Unless you have been inhabiting another planet for the past ten years, then you are likely to be aware of Thaler and Sunstein’s ‘nudge’ approach to encouraging us humans into making more ‘prosocial choices’ (2008). Examples include’ nudging’ to help people give up smoking and to encourage people to donate their organs when they die (the former presumably prolonging a promise to do the latter). In terms of a means by which crime might be reduced, then the uptake of nudge thinking continues to lag behind its application in health and social policy initiatives. It is suggested here that this is primarily because there has been little advancement in nudge thinking in a crime reduction direction, nor has it become more bespoke to policing and crime in the same way that it has for numerous public health issues. The argument presented here is that Nudge is simply one of many ways to influence thinking and behaviour, others include ‘Locus of Control’. Suggestions for how the wider adoption of a broader ‘psychology of influence’ approach in policing are presented alongside ways of making it a more attractive proposition to those charged with preventing crime (e.g. NUDGE-IT).
PeriodSep 2022
Event title22nd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology
Event typeConference
Conference number22
LocationMalaga, SpainShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational