NCJ Number
217259
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2007 Pages: 52-67
Date Published
February 2007
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article describes a community crime prevention program in five different communities in China called Building Little Safe and Civilized Communities (BLSCC).
Abstract
The BLSCC was implemented in China in response to an increase in crime associated with China’s economic development. Its implementation, while conforming in large degree to the situational forms of community crime prevention seen in the West, has several distinct “Chinese characteristics.” These unique Chinese characteristics include its ideological underpinnings, its mass prevention and mass management approach, and heavy government investment. The implementation of the BLSCC has also transformed other social control and crime prevention institutions in the local communities. Many of these pre-existing agencies have become more specialized and less comprehensive in their approaches and many neighborhood committees that previously addressed crime prevention are financially strained. The BLSCC model is different from previous crime prevention approaches adopted in China because it seeks to link little communities to several large communities in an effort to enhance large area stability and create “little community peace.” This marks a departure from the previous Chinese approach that relied solely on internal community sources for crime prevention and a get tough approach to criminals. Data were drawn from fieldwork in the five communities under examination. Four main aspects of the implementation of the BLSCC’s in these communities were examined: (1) organizational features; (2) safety measures; (3) civilization measures; and (4) the BLSCC rating system, which assesses the effectiveness of implementation. The authors note that the transferability of the BLSCC to Western societies is questionable because of the difficulties of implementing community policing approaches in Western countries. Table, notes, references