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Community Education and Crime Prevention: Confronting Foreground and Background Causes of Criminal Behavior

NCJ Number
178752
Author(s)
Carolyn Siemens Ward
Date Published
1998
Length
291 pages
Annotation
This book examines the causes of crime and discusses a community education approach to crime prevention.
Abstract
The book presents an in-depth look at community life within one city (St. Louis) and one inner-city neighborhood (Hyde Park) during a 1-year period. It covers preventive measures for the foreground causes of criminal behavior such as opportunity and for the background causes such as social malaise. The Hyde Park community education and crime prevention program involved citizen councils and interagency cooperation, and made an effort to involve everyone in the pursuit of lifelong learning, using community resources and the community as a classroom. Specific measures included mobile patrol efforts and improving police community relations. The book examines the community-oriented problem-solving philosophy of policing and compares demographically similar neighborhoods concerning criminal behavior. Notes, figures, bibliography, index