Sexual Assault Offenses in Melville City Council

This article discusses the patterns of sexual assault offenses in Melville City Council and explores crime prevention theories to address the issue. It also highlights the importance of community involvement and situational prevention in reducing sexual assault incidents.

Running Head: Sexual Assault 1
Sexual Assault Offenses in Melville City Council
Name of Student
Institutional Affiliation

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INTRODUCTION
Melville City lies in the suburbs of Perth one of the largest cities in Australia. This proximity to
such a big city leaves Melville City at a high risk of experiencing crimes such as sexual assault.
This happens as a result of the high population in the Capital spills over to the suburbs. Fighting
crimes should not only take a punitive approach through the arresting of the individuals who
commit acts that are deemed to be criminal by the laws of Western Australia. Therefore, it is
important to understand that it takes both environmental factors and individual factors for one to
commit an offense. Several theories have been fronted to explain why individuals indulge in
crimes. According to classical law theorists, Bentham (2017) and Beccaria (2009), man was
endowed with the ability to choose what they feel is best for them and that man was created in a
way that they always live searching and seeking for maximum pleasure in life. However, the
positivist school of thought believes that to commit a crime one is driven by biological,
sociological, and physiological factors. Scholars like Lochner and Moretti (2004) carried out a
study and concluded that some of the social factors that predispose individuals to crime include
poverty, age, gender, education and the use of substances such as alcohol.
SEXUAL ASSAULT CRIME PATTERNS IN MELVILLE CITY
Crime patterns study is greatly expounded in the study of crime mapping. Crime mapping is an
essential study that enables crime agencies to be able to analyze and visualize crime occurrence
patterns. The proper understanding of crime mapping enables law enforcement agencies to fight
crimes. With crime patterns, the City Council of Melville will get to know what areas are
experiencing crime rates, for instance, the marking of public transport areas as a hot crime one in
Melville City involves crime mapping. Such an area is known as crime nodes (Hill and Paynich,
2013). Hill and Paynich (2013) discuss crime mapping through the identification of the various
nodes in an environmental set.
Normally, the offender has his day to day life and places in which he gets to spend most of his
hours a day. These places according to Hill and Paynich (2013) are referred to as activity areas.
In this case, the activity nodes for the offenders in Melville city would be the public transport
areas. The routes these offenders use to reach this area is usually referred to as the paths. The
interaction of offenders and their victims takes place in the activity areas, paths, awareness areas,

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and the peripheral areas. These are the areas that an offender visits occasionally. The city public
transport area acts as a 'crime magnet' this is due to the fact that the area has a high population
and at least every day a new person comes to the city.
Sexual Assault in Melville City
According to Mogavero and Hsu (2018), sexual offenders are usually a mobile lot of offenders,
that is, they would scout for victims in their activity areas seclude them and later sexually assault
them in a more secluded environment (the peripheral area- this is the area surrounding the
activity area of the offender). It is therefore important that the city police enforcement agencies
to study and apply crime mapping techniques to enable them predict the preferred location,
victims, and situational circumstances and conditions that would lead to the offender committing
the heinous act with the victim in the in a place other than where he first crossed paths with the
offender.
The rational choice theory has an impact on sexual assault cases. This theory developed by
Clarke evaluates the circumstances that lead to one eventually committing an offense ( Lersch,
2011). This process involves victim evaluation, here the offender scouts for a victim that looks
less resistive, the gains, and the possible risks that they face if they were to sexually assault their
victim. Seigel (2009), establishes the fact that the perpetrator compares the gains of his actions
versus the punishment he will face when caught to see whether or not the presumed gains
outweigh the risks. This, therefore, means that reviewing the Criminal Code Compilation Act of
1913 to provide for dire consequences for those liable for sexual assault. This will shift the
balance to the risks' side, thus preventing such crimes in Melville City.
It is often difficult to have a clear representation of how many people have been sexually
assaulted. A report done by the Australian Institute of Criminology Research and Public Policy
(Series No. 36), outlined issues like the fear of not being believed or the act of feeling ashamed
as being a hindrance to having a clear data. This has a great effect on crime mapping and the
establishment of a crime pattern that enables the police to curb sexual assault offenses in the city
of Melville. It is prudent that the police be in a position to establish the relationship between the
offender and his victim once a sexual assault claim has been filed. In addition, a forensic study

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should done on the victim. This information helps in developing a high-quality data management
program that enables the police to know the trends including increase and the decrease in the
number of victims and where the offense took place. In as much as sexual assault has been
reported in Melville's public transport areas, the acts like rape are most commonly carried out in
residential areas that do not draw much attention to the offender.
CRIME PREVENTION THEORIES
Crime prevention theory is defined as a precautionary measures that are put in place and
undertaken in ensuring that individuals do not undertake, aid or abet activities that are considered
criminal by the state (Welsh & Farrington, 2014). Like the wise saying goes prevention is better
than a cure, it is important for the city council to focus more on preventing crimes than waiting
to arrest the perpetrators which is a more expensive thing to do as it leads to the building of
correctional centers packed with a team of support staff, yet it is not guaranteed that the offender
will walk out of these institutions a changed man (Scott, 2013). The importance crime prevention
adds to the criminal justice system is that it looks into the possible victim's interest as prevention
ensures there are no victims of these crimes while post crime does not take into attention the
victims welfare as it only focuses more on the offender (Schneider, 2014).
As times pass by more attention is drawn into the preventing sexual offenses than dealing with
the issues after the incident (Allardyce, 2018). Due to the rising numbers of the incidence being
reported to the authorities prevention has been gaining momentum and recognition universally.
The prevention of sexual assaults has taken three pronged prevention theories:
● Community-based prevention theory
● Situational Prevention theory
● Developmental prevention theory
Community-based Prevention Theory
The community is a fundamental component of society. There are practices that a community
preaches and some that the community totally speaks against. Crime fighting is not a job for the

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city council only with the exclusion of the community besides the victims of sexual assault are
members of the community. Hughes and Edwards (2014) understand that the engagement of the
community in the fight against crimes is a boost to the already existing measures that have been
laid out with the aim of crime prevention. This theory aims at impacting the aspects of the
community, such as their culture, environment, and infrastructure. Crawford (2014) describes
this theory as a unifying bond between the public and law enforcement agencies. Sexual assault
is one of the offenses that crosses both the criminal and immoral lane. The city council should
carry out awareness amongst the community members on the importance of being their
neighbors' keeper this can form part of the culture of the community. In matters infrastructure, it
is crucial that they increase their watch by installing CCTV cameras and also the community
could form a neighborhood watch to increase vigilance. The response time in case of a distress
call should also be improved and paths made to make the areas accessible.
Situational Prevention
This theory is modeled for specific crimes in society, such crimes involve predators. Huisman
and Erp (2013) acknowledge the fact that it is difficult to be able to derive innovative crime
prevention methods from this theory. Clarke (2009) created this theory to focus more on the
setting of the crime than the offenders. The major criticism of this theory is that it overlooks the
offenders and does not aim at improving the correctional and rehabilitative centers involved in
the criminal justice system. This theory's sole purpose is changing the environment through
remodeling and restructuring, thus reducing the occurrence of crimes. Melville can re-modify the
public transport areas in a way that it becomes easier to scout for like sexual predators while
making it impossible for them to escape in case of a police chase. In light of the rationale theory,
it is important that the city makes laws that make crimes (sexual assault) more punishable than
justifiable. The strict sole application of this theory however, as it prevents one crime, thus the
offender is at liberty to shift to other forms of crimes.
Developmental Prevention
Early childhood development has a great impact on how the child turns out in the future. Tilley
and Sidebottom (2017) have concluded that poor parenting leaves the child predisposed to risk
factors that lead to them becoming juvenile offenders. The city should also emphasize that

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special training be offered to female students who are joining educational institutions so they
could be equipped with skills that are necessary for helping themselves against becoming victims
of sexual assaults. These skills should be able to improve their danger assessment skills and self-
defense skills.
CAPACITY TO MODIFY SEXUAL ASSAULT OPPORTUNITIES IN MELVILLE
As discussed above in this essay, every offender is subject to the rational choice theory. Every
offender knows that before engaging in an activity it is either legal or criminal thus before
indulging they weigh their options. They pick a victim who would not put up a struggle while
weighing the consequences of their actions against the repercussions. It takes more than just the
mens rea to commit and offense, that is, the scene that the crime is to take place should be
suitable enough for own to satisfy his malicious intentions. Natarajan (2017) emphasizes that
both the malicious thought and the suitable environmental condition must exist for one to carry
out his criminal act. Therefore it means that for the city to prevent such it is important to deny
the offender suitable and conducive environmental conditions.
The city should incorporate skills training as part of the curricular in institutions such as college
and other learning institutions, this is important as it makes the female student capable of
defending herself in case of an attempted sexual assault on them. It also increases their
assessment skills that way they can be able to sense imminent danger. The public transport areas
should be bugged with audio transmitters and CCTV cameras this instills the fear of being
caught in the offender thus they would refrain based on the rational choice theory.
This theory, however, remains criticized as it turns a blind of the root cause of crimes (the
sociological and psychological factors). Thus, maintaining the status quo when it comes to re-
offending.
CONCLUSION
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of sexual assaults continues to be
on the rise (VCAA Forum Report, 2019), it is therefore important that all stakeholders merge to
help fight this menace. Women do not feel safe anymore in their city, and this has become a

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worrying trend. It takes the collectiveness of law enforcement and the community members to
fight and prevent such heinous crimes against persons.

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REFERENCES
Books, Article and Reports
Allardyce, S. (2018). Theories of Sexual Crime Prevention. In Sexual Crime and Prevention (pp.
1-25). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-98243-4_1
Beccaria, C., & marchese di Beccaria, C. (2009). On Crimes and Punishments and other
writings. University of Toronto Press.
Bentham, J., (2017) An Introduction To the Principle of Morals and Legislation. New York:
Jonathan Bennet
Clarke, R. V. (2009). Situational crime prevention: Theoretical background and current practice.
In Handbook on crime and deviance (pp. 259-276). Springer, New York, NY. Pp 259-
276 2009
Crawford, A., (2014) Crime Prevention Policies in Comparative. Routledge.
Hill, B. & Paynich, R., (2013). Fundamentals of Crime Mapping. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Hughes, G. & Adams, E., (2013) Crime Control and Community. Routledge
Huisman, W., & Erp V. j.( 2013) Opportunities for Environmental Crime: A Test of Situational
Crime theory . The British Journal of Criminology, 53(6) 1178-1200.
Lersch, K., Hart C. T. (2011). Space, Time and Crime. Carolina Academic Press.
Lochner, L., & Moretti, E. (2004). The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Poison
inmates, arrests, and self-reports. American Economic Review, 94(1), 155-189.
doi:10.1257/000282804322970751
Mogavero, M. C., & Hsu, K. H. (2018). Sex offender mobility: An application of crime pattern
theory among child sex offenders. Sexual Abuse, 30(8), 908-931. doi:
10.1177/1079063217712219
Natarajan, M. (2017). Crime opportunity theories: Routine activity, rational choice and their
variants. Routledge.
Schneider, S. (2014). Crime prevention: Theory and practice. (2nd Edition)CRC Press.
Scott, D., (2013). Why Prison? Cambridge University Press
Seigel, L. J., (2009). Criminology. (10 ed) Belmont, CA : Thompson/Wadsworth
Tilley, N., & Sidebottom, A. (Eds.) (2017). Handbook of crime prevention and community
safety. Routledge.