Factors affecting criminal behaviour and situational and social crime prevention: HSC Legal Studies

What this dot point is asking

The last part of "the nature of crime" asks two related questions: why do people commit crime, and what can be done to stop it happening in the first place? The syllabus wants you to "examine a range of factors that may lead to criminal behaviour" and "investigate a range of situational and social crime prevention techniques".

This content matters beyond short answers. Crime prevention is the clearest example of the syllabus theme "the effectiveness of legal and non-legal measures in achieving justice", and it gives you evidence for Section II Part B questions about protecting community interests (2025) or encouraging compliance (2023).

The answer

Factors affecting criminal behaviour

No single factor causes crime. Criminologists describe risk factors that make offending more likely and protective factors that make it less likely. The syllabus expects you to discuss a range of them.

Psychological factors

Mental illness, cognitive impairment, personality disorders and trauma can affect impulse control, judgement and understanding. Most people with mental illness do not offend, and they are more likely to be victims than offenders, but people with mental illness and cognitive disability are over-represented in prisons. This links to the mental health defences and to the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 (NSW), which governs how the courts deal with them.

Economic factors

Poverty, unemployment, homelessness and financial stress create both motive (need) and opportunity (for example, time spent without structured work). Economic hardship is most closely associated with property offences such as theft. White collar crime shows the other side: greed and opportunity rather than need drive offences such as fraud and insider trading.

Social factors

Family environment (exposure to violence, neglect, parental incarceration), peer groups, disengagement from school and substance use are all strong predictors of youth offending. Social learning theory argues that people learn offending behaviour from those around them. Social media is a newer factor: NSW created a "posting and boasting" offence (Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s 154K, from April 2024), adding up to 2 years to the maximum penalty where an offender publishes material advertising a motor vehicle theft or break and enter; in June 2026 Parliament extended it to assault and robbery offences.

Genetic and biological factors

Some research links genetic predispositions, brain development and hormones to aggression or impulsivity. Adolescent brain development (the prefrontal cortex matures into the mid-twenties) is one reason young people take more risks, and it is part of the justification for treating young offenders differently. Genetic explanations are controversial because they can be used to justify discrimination and ignore social causes.

Political factors

Some people offend to express political or ideological beliefs, from peaceful civil disobedience (climate protesters blocking roads) to violent extremism and terrorism. Political motives do not excuse offending, but they shape how the law responds, for example through counter-terrorism powers and debates about protest laws.

Self-interest and greed

Rational choice theory assumes offenders weigh costs and benefits. Crime occurs when the perceived reward outweighs the perceived risk. This theory underpins both deterrence (raising the cost) and situational crime prevention (reducing the reward or increasing the risk).

The combination: over-representation of Aboriginal people

The over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people shows why factors must be analysed together. BOCSAR reported that in June 2026 there were 4,726 Aboriginal adults in NSW custody, 33.9% of the adult custody population, and that Aboriginal young people made up 51.4% of young people in detention, even though Aboriginal people are about 3.4% of the NSW population (2021 Census). The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1991) and the Australian Law Reform Commission's Pathways to Justice report (2017) linked this to dispossession, the removal of children, intergenerational trauma, economic disadvantage, and the way police discretion and bail laws operate. The National Agreement on Closing the Gap (2020) sets Target 10 (reduce the adult incarceration rate by at least 15% by 2031) and Target 11 (reduce the rate of young people in detention by at least 30% by 2031).

Crime prevention

Crime prevention aims to stop offending before it happens. The syllabus divides it into two approaches.

Situational crime prevention in NSW

Environmental design and surveillance

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) uses natural surveillance (windows overlooking streets), access control, lighting and maintenance to make offending riskier. CCTV networks in town centres and transport hubs deter some offending and help police identify suspects.

Wanding powers

After a series of knife attacks in 2024, including the Bondi Junction stabbings in April 2024, NSW passed the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) and Other Legislation Amendment (Knife Crime) Act 2024. Modelled on Queensland's "Jack's Law" (named after Jack Beasley, killed on the Gold Coast in 2019), it allows a senior officer to declare an area such as a shopping precinct, sporting venue or transport station where a relevant weapons or violence offence has occurred in the previous 12 months, after which police can scan people with metal-detecting wands without a warrant or reasonable suspicion. The same Act raised the minimum age for buying knives to 18. The powers target a specific risk but reduce privacy and depend heavily on police discretion.

Liquor restrictions: the lockout laws

In 2014, after the one-punch deaths of Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie, NSW introduced 1.30 am lockouts and 3 am last drinks in Kings Cross and the Sydney CBD. BOCSAR evaluations found substantial falls in non-domestic assaults in the targeted precincts. However, critics pointed to displacement of violence to other areas and severe damage to Sydney's night-time economy and live music. The laws were wound back from 2020 and removed from the CBD in 2021. The episode is a good example of a situational measure that worked on its narrow goal but was judged too costly.

Drug checking

Harm-reduction measures are a form of situational prevention because they change the circumstances of drug use. The NSW Drug Summit (late 2024) recommended pill testing, and NSW Health ran a 12-month drug checking trial at music festivals from early 2025. A University of Sydney evaluation found drug-related hospital presentations averaged 2.3 per festival day during the trial, compared with 3.6 in the previous two years, and 8.1% of samples contained an unexpected substance. In September 2026 the government announced the service would continue at up to 15 festivals a year. This reform is a textbook example of law reform reflecting changing moral and ethical standards, which is exactly what the 2025 HSC multiple-choice question tested.

Evaluating situational prevention

The strongest criticism is displacement: offenders may move to a different location, time, target or method. Situational measures also raise civil liberties concerns (privacy, suspicionless searches) and can fall hardest on groups who spend more time in public space, including young people and Aboriginal people.

Social crime prevention in NSW

Education and early intervention

Keeping children engaged in school is one of the strongest protective factors. Early intervention programs such as NSW's Youth on Track work with young people aged 10 to 17 identified by police as at risk of reoffending, providing case management and family support.

Youth and community programs

Police Citizens Youth Clubs (PCYC) and sport and mentoring programs build relationships between young people and police and provide structured activities.

Drug and alcohol treatment

Diversion into treatment (the Early Drug Diversion Initiative from February 2024, the MERIT program in the Local Court, and the Drug Court) treats drug use as a health issue and aims to break the link between addiction and offending.

Justice reinvestment

Justice reinvestment redirects spending from prisons to community-led programs in places with high incarceration. The best-known Australian example is the Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project in Bourke, led by the local Aboriginal community with Just Reinvest NSW since 2012. KPMG's 2018 impact assessment reported a 23% reduction in police-recorded domestic violence incidents, a 31% increase in Year 12 retention, a 38% reduction in charges across the top five juvenile offence categories, and a gross economic impact of about $3.1 million in 2017, roughly two-thirds of it in the justice system.

New diversion for younger children

On 15 September 2026 the NSW Government announced an $8.4 million voluntary diversion pilot for children aged 8 to 13 at risk of offending, to begin in Tamworth by early 2027, with referrals possible without any criminal charge, and consultation on a mandatory diversion pathway. It sits alongside tougher responses, such as the extension of the strict youth bail test, which shows the government pursuing prevention and punishment at the same time.

Evaluating social prevention

Social prevention addresses causes and is supported by strong evidence, but it takes years to show results, relies on sustained funding and community leadership, and is politically less visible than new police powers. Its benefits are also spread across health, education and housing budgets rather than the justice system, which makes it harder to fund.

Linking to the syllabus themes

• Effectiveness of legal and non-legal measures. Legal measures (offences, police powers, bail) and non-legal measures (community programs, harm reduction, education) work best together.
• Role of law reform. The drug checking trial, wanding powers and the posting and boasting offence show reform responding to specific problems, some evidence-based and some reactive.
• Balancing rights. Suspicionless wanding and lockout laws limit individual freedom to protect the community; the question is whether the limit is proportionate.
• Role of discretion. Police decide where to wand, whom to divert and whom to charge. Lower diversion rates for Aboriginal people under the Early Drug Diversion Initiative, raised by the Aboriginal Legal Service, show how discretion can undermine equal treatment.

In one sentence

Crime is driven by an interaction of psychological, economic, social, biological, political and self-interest factors, and prevention works best when situational measures that remove opportunity are combined with social measures that address why people offend.

Try this

Q1. Outline ONE situational and ONE social crime prevention technique used in NSW. (4 marks)

• What the marker wants. An accurate example of each (for example wanding powers and Maranguka), with a sentence on how each prevents crime.

Q2. Explain how economic factors may lead to criminal behaviour. (4 marks)

• What the marker wants. The mechanism (need, opportunity, reduced stake in conformity), a type of crime it affects, and the contrast with greed-driven white collar crime.

Q3. To what extent do crime prevention measures balance the rights of individuals and the needs of society? (7 marks)

• What the marker wants. A judgement supported by the civil liberties costs of situational measures (wanding, lockouts) weighed against their safety benefits, and the rights-respecting nature of social prevention.