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The Opening and Closing of Breaches

A Theory on Crime Waves, Law Creation and Crime Prevention

University of Lausanne, Switzerland

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.

Key Words: Breaches • Crime Trends • Criminalization • History of Crime • History of Criminal Law • Law-making • Long-term Analysis • Routine Activities • Situational Crime Prevention • Sociology of Law

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