Mike Sutton (criminologist)

Michael "Mike" Sutton (born 1959) is the originator of the Market Reduction Approach (MRA) to theft.^[1][2] Described by Marcus Felson as classic research ^[3] and as a simple idea,^[4] Sutton's MRA has had a significant influence upon theory and practice regarding stolen goods markets and markets for other illicit commodities. Influential criminologists have incorporated Sutton’s work on stolen goods markets to explain the issue of offenders’ capacity to commit crimes.^[5] Hopkins Burke writes of Sutton’s earlier work on the MRA: “He suggests that judges and their advisors should consider the social harm stolen goods markets do in stimulating the incidence and prevalence of theft - and the unintended consequences of providing subsidies for the illicit sex and drugs industries.”^[6] The general MRA principles outlined by Sutton 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 artefacts^[7][8] and as a useful method for tackling the trade in endangered species.^[9][10]

Early career

An alumnus of the University of Central Lancashire, Sutton was born in Orpington in Kent. On graduating with BA (hons) Law and PhD from the University of Central Lancashire in 1987, Sutton worked for 14 years as Senior Research Officer in the UK Government's Home Office Department for Research Statistics and Development, and later in the Policing and Reducing Crime Unit. Sutton was on the team that evaluated the unit fines experiment in the UK,^[11] the findings of which led the British Government to implement means related fines.^[12] At a national level the results proved disastrous as the legislation was rapidly repealed following a media outcry.^[13] In 1996, Sutton was part of the team that evaluated the £50m Safer Cities Project, finding it cost effective in reducing domestic burglary.^[14][15] Pease says of Sutton’s 1996 finding in his evaluation of the decision making by Safer Cities coordinators that many turned their backs on what worked in favour of what they believed should work as a “strikingly thought provoking result.”.^[16]

Sutton is also the founding General Editor of the open access Internet Journal of Criminology.^[17] He is Reader in Criminology, teaches hi-tech crime and crime reduction, and is founding Director of the Centre for the Study and Reduction of Hate Crimes at Nottingham Trent University. In the field of Hate Crimes, Sutton has published journal articles on the subject of inter-racial relationships and violence.^[18][19]

Sutton's Market Reduction Approach is currently government recommended crime reduction practice in the United Kingdom,^[20] recommended by the United States government,^[21] and the Australian government.^[22] The New Zealand Ministry of Justice identified eight areas of good practice in using MRA techniques to tackle property crime.^[23]

Research

Described as a valuable analysis in the Oxford Handbook of Criminology,^[24] Sutton's Market Reduction Approach to theft was independently evaluated by criminologists from the University of Kent^[25] who wrote that the theory remains sound but that the police implementing it in Kent (Medway towns) and Manchester in the UK experienced problems doing it properly due to particular policing management/organisational difficulties. Despite the fact that police forces are notoriously resistant to change, the so called Sutton Bible "Tackling Theft With The Market Reduction Approach"^[26] is currently the most popular policing guide to tackling theft by cracking down on thieves selling their loot in stolen goods markets. In addition, Sutton's MRA reveals how to identify and police various types of fence (dealers in stolen goods) and the wider buying public.

Sutton's initial five-fold typology of stolen goods markets was discussed by the Secretary of State in the UK Parliament in 2004.^[27]

In 1999 Sutton's virtual ethnography of a smart card hacking group was awarded (jointly with David Mann) the British Journal of Criminology annual prize for the article^[28] that most significantly contributed to academic knowledge. This article influenced the work of UK Government Foresight Panel on Crime in 2000.^[29]

Sutton's early research into vandalism^[30] identified Peer Status Motivated Vandalism as the seventh sub-type of vandalism that was missing from the typology created by Stanley Cohen (sociologist).^[31] Sutton's sub-type was identified years later by Mathew Williams (criminologist) in an article in the Internet Journal of Criminology as the most suitable explanation for the motivation behind the "virtual vandalism" he studied in a 3D Internet community.^[32]

Sutton's Home Office funded Government research report Getting the Message Across^[33] on the best use of media for reducing racial prejudice and discrimination famously found that the UK Government, and many of its departments and funded bodies, have been wasting scarce resources on unproven and non-evaluated publicity campaigns that could well have backfired and made the problem worse.

Whilst fact checking a well known story about the impact of bad data on policy making, Sutton debunked a long standing academic myth about a misplaced decimal point in biochemistry research influencing the erroneous promotion of spinach as a good source of iron.^[34]

Sutton is influential to criminologists, social scientists, police and crime reduction experts, as demonstrated by the number of police forces who use the MRA to tackle stolen goods markets in order to seek to tackle the root causes of crime: The MRA has been implemented in the UK by Kent Constabulary,^[35] West Mercia Constabulary,^[36] Derby City Constabulary,^[37] Nottinghamshire Constabulary,^[38] and Greater Manchester Police.^[39]

Sutton's MRA work Handling Stolen Goods and Theft: A Market Reduction Approach provides the most systematic and comprehensive research into stolen goods markets ever undertaken - revealing that in 1994, 11% of the population of England and Wales bought stolen goods in the past five years^[40] and outlining five key market types that show how the most commonly stolen goods are sold. The MRA suggests how these markets might best be policed to reduce both demand for stolen goods and their supply by theft.

Since the MRA is quite heavily based upon the Situational Crime Reduction (SCP) approach and utilises key elements from Routine Activities Theory (RAT) to seek to reduce the very markets that motivate thieves to steal in the first place, it uniquely solved the problem faced by "administrative criminology" regarding earlier academic and practitioner criticisms that SCP and RAT failed to tackle offender motivation as well as opportunity. Both SCP and RAT have evolved to now incorporate elements from MRA research.^[41][42]

International policing guide: stolen goods markets

Sutton's guide to policing stolen goods markets adds a sixth stolen goods market type to his five-fold typology with the emergence of e-selling. The guide, which is free and open access, is published by the US Government's Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, COPS Programme, as a guide to combating theft with the Problem Oriented approach to Policing.^[43]

External links

• Official website

References