Criminal Policy Approach to Lone Offenders and a Possible Model for their Identification

The method of lone offence and its appearance in crime and terrorism have been persistent. Their identification is difficult with traditional methods of criminal policy and crime control. A fundamental reason for this is that criminal policy serves the reduction of the crime rate, that is, the prevention and investigation of a large number of similar offences, and the enforcement of the state’s monopoly in criminal law. In this paper, I will demonstrate why criminal policy, the theory of deterrence and criminological interpretation of crime prevention are not suitable for identifying and preventing this method of attack. Due to their nature, lone offender attacks receive extensive media coverage, magnifying the dangers they represent. I will demonstrate the ways in which penal dogmatic and prevention models work or may not work. At the end of the paper I will outline a possible prevention model.