Violent Crime Typology and Continuum

By Christine Army and Karim H. Vellani

  Violent crimes represent a small but significant portion of the reported crime in the United States. Categorically, violent crimes occur at a much lower frequency as compared to property crimes and disorder crimes. However, violent crimes can cause significant harm. While a robust body of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of crime prevention measures for property and disorder crimes exists, far less evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of security measures used to prevent violent crime. In other words, criminals engaged in disorder crimes (e.g., vandalism) and property crimes (e.g., theft) are more likely to be deterred via common security measures, while those engaged in violent crimes (e.g., robbery) are less likely to be deterred. Criminologists have long theorized that violent crimes are difficult to prevent (Taylor et al 2010; Douglas 2013) due to the spontaneous and irrational (Felson 1993) nature of violent incidents and due to the impulsive and expressive (Taylor et al 2010) nature of violent criminals. The majority of homicides in 2017 were found to be cau  

Threat Analysis, 2021. 13p.