Market reduction approach (MRA) is an approach to reducing crime by reducing the opportunity for thieves to fence or resell what they have stolen.
History
Early In 1796, the London magistrate Patrick ColquhounColquhoun, P. (a Magistrate) (1796) A Treatise on The Police of the Metropolis. Third edition. London. C. Dilly observed that "[i]t rarely happens that thieves go upon the highway, or commit burglaries, until the money they have previously acquired is exhausted," and that "...without a safe and ready market he [the thief] is undone."
Recognizing the key role played by dealers in stolen goods in facilitating profit from theft and motivation for offenders to steal and with an aim to influence harsher legislation and sentencing of professional fences, the American jurisprudentialist Jerome HallHall, J. (1952) Theft, Law and Society. Second Edition. Indianapolis. Bobbs-Merrill Co emphasised the role of the professional fence in the marketing of stolen goods and created a typology that distinguished between professional fences, part-time dealers, and those who knowingly buy stolen goods for their own consumption. A number of ethnography studies (e.g. Klockars 1974;Klockars, C. (1974) The Professional Fence. New York. Free Press Henry 1977Henry, S. (1976) Fencing With Accounts: The Language of Moral Bridging. British Journal of Law and Society. 3: 91–100 and Steffensmeir 1986Steffensmeier, D. J. (1986) The Fence: In the Shadow of Two Worlds. New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield) hinted at the influence of the market for stolen goods upon levels of theft of certain goods.
A systematic study of the various ways that stolen goods are stored, sold and bought – going beyond the previous focus upon the guilty mind and level of involvement of dealers and consumers – was conducted by Mike Sutton, who created a fivefold market typology based on his interviews with expert prolific thieves, inexperienced thieves, fences, drug dealers and stolen goods consumers. In 1998, the UK Home Office published Sutton's reportSutton, M. (1998) Handling Stolen Goods and Theft: A Market Reduction Approach. Home Office Research Study 178. Home Office. London. (Peer reviewed national government research report). UK National Archives: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110220105210/rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors178.pdf proposing a systematic framework for researching and tackling local stolen goods markets.
Modern Current development of the market reduction approach (MRA) has its origins in a 1995 British Journal of Criminology paper: Supply by Theft that was followed by a 1998 United Kingdom Government Home Office research study entitled Handling Stolen Goods and Theft: A Market Reduction Approach, both written by Mike Sutton Further work on implementing and process evaluation of the MRA was conducted by Schneider.Schneider, J. L. (2005) Stolen Goods Markets: Methods of Disposal. British Journal of Criminology. 45 (2) 129–140
Described by Marcus Felson as "...a simple idea in an important article"Felson, M. (1998)Crime and Everyday Life. Second Edition. Thousand Oakes. Pine Forge Press.(see page 38). and as classic research,Felson, M. Crime and Everyday Life. Vol 4. Thousand Oakes. Sage (see Page 88) Sutton's concept of MRA has had an influence upon theory and practice regarding stolen goods markets and markets for other illicit commodities. Some criminologists have incorporated Sutton's work on stolen goods markets to explain the issue of offenders’ capacity to commit crimes.Maguire, M. Morgan, R, Reiner, R. (2007) Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Oxford. Oxford University Press. (See: page 357) The general MRA principles have influenced work beyond research into markets for theft of high volume consumer goods, since the MRA is described as underpinning recent research into illicit markets for cultural artefactsMackenzie, S. (2007) Dealing in cultural objects: a new criminal law for the UK. Amicus Curiae. Issue 71.Mackenzie, S. and Green, P. (2003) Criminalising the Market in Illicit Antiquities: An Evaluation of the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act. https://ssrn.com/abstract=1004267 and as a useful method for tackling the trade in endangered species.Schneider JL. (2008) ‘Reducing the Illicit Trade in Wildlife: The Market Reduction Approach’. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 24:274–95Lemieux, A. M. and Clarke, R. V. (2009)The International Ban on Ivory Sales and its Effects on Elephant Poaching in Africa British Journal of Criminology July 1, 2009 49: 451–471
Sutton's 1998 stolen goods Handling Report includes findings from the nationally representative British Crime Survey (1994). This revealed that 11 percent of those questioned had bought stolen goods in the preceding five years, and that 70 percent believed that some of their neighbours had stolen goods in their homes. The Handling Report was followed by a more comprehensive MRA policing guide to stolen goods markets.Sutton, M., Schneider, J.L. and Hetherington, (2001) Tackling theft with the market reduction approach. Home Office Crime Reduction Research Series Paper 8. (Peer reviewed national government research report) http://www.popcenter.org/problems/bicycle_theft/PDFs/Sutton_etal_2001.pdf
Application Kent constabulary were the first to experiment with the MRA in Operation Radium. This experiment at systematically tackling stolen goods markets, along with another MRA initiative by the Greater Manchester Police, as routine policing (rather than merely cracking down from time to time) was independently evaluated by criminologists from The University of Kent. The evaluation found that while the MRA theory remains sound that the police forces experienced organisational difficulties implementing it correctly.
Based on Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) "rational choice, opportunity reduction" principles, and employing philosophy from routine activity theory (RAT) the MRA is designed to reduce theft through reducing the demand for stolen goods that motivated thieves to steal. In addition it seeks to make handling stolen goods at least as difficult as it is to steal them and to increase the risks of detection for all those selling and buying stolen goods. In this way the MRA answered a long-standing academic criticism that SCP and RAT did not take account of offender motivation. MRA principles are now firmly established within both SCPClarke, R.V. ( 1999 ) Hot Products. London. Police Research paper 112. Home Office RAT and Problem Oriented Policing (POP) key texts.
The MRA has been implemented in the United Kingdom by Kent Constabulary,Joint Report from: Kent County Council Trading Standards; Medway Council Trading Standards and Kent Police. The Kent Acts: A Case For National Legislation. (2001) Report to the Secretary of State. West Mercia Constabulary, Derby City Constabulary,Sutton, M. (2004) How Burglars and Shoplifters Sell Stolen Goods in Derby: DESCRIBING AND UNDERSTANDING THE LOCAL ILLICIT MARKETS. A Dynamics of Offending Report for Derby Community Safety Partnership. Internet Journal of Criminology. Nottinghamshire Constabulary,Nottinghamshire Constabulary South Nottinghamshire Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership, Partnership Strategic Plan (2008 - 2011). and Greater Manchester Police. It is recommended crime reduction practice by the UKBurglary Toolkit: Developing Local Solutions for Local Problems. Home Office UK Publications. Acquisitive Crime Resources Library online. Burglary Toolkit: United States, and Australian governments. The New Zealand Ministry of Justice conducted a review of research focused on the MRA and identified eight areas of good practice in using it to tackle property crime.New Zealand Ministry of Justice (2005). 6 Property Focused Initiatives. http://www.justice.govt.nz/publications/global-publications/r/research-on-the-effectiveness-of-police-practice-in-reducing-residential-burglary-november-2005-report-10.-overview-research-on-the-effectiveness-of-police-practice-in-reducing-residential-burglary/6-property-focused-interventions
In 2008, the MRA has been applied to research focused upon tackling markets for endangered species.
The MRA and problem oriented policing Introducing a sixth market type, e-fencing, the MRA is used by the US Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, to combat crime with the problem-oriented approach to policing.
References