Young's square of crime
Young's framework identifying four elements creating crime: offenders, victims, informal social control, and formal control (police/courts). Crime results from interaction of all four, not any single cause.
Real World
In high-crime Hackney in the early 2000s, the square of crime helps explain rising knife violence: marginalised young men (offenders), local residents (victims), collapsed community trust (weak informal control), and under-resourced policing (weak formal control) all interacted.
Exam Focus
In 'apply' questions, explicitly name all four corners of the square — part-answers that omit formal or informal control rarely access top marks.
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