NCJ Number
146330
Journal
European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: (1993) Pages: 126-142
Date Published
1993
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article examines policies for preventing crimes in Western European countries.
Abstract
Officially recorded crime rates have risen steeply in all Western European countries since the Second World War. This phenomenon has been accompanied, particularly in the last decade, by an increasing acknowledgement of the limitations of the criminal justice system and its agencies to control crime and deter offenders. Some countries are seeking ways to stop people from becoming offenders in the first place; 2nd ways of strengthening the internal controls of individuals, groups and neighborhoods and away from reliance upon controls externally imposed by the criminal justice system. The main part of this paper focuses on countries where crime prevention encompasses broad areas of public and social policy implemented predominantly at the local level by individuals, agencies, companies, and institutions outside the criminal justice system: Denmark, Sweden, France, England and Wales, and the Netherlands. The incipient development of crime prevention policies in Germany remains an enigma. This may be due in part to the predominantly legalistic approach to law enforcement in Germany. In addition, experiences of citizen involvement in neighborhood surveillance during the Nazi era has clearly produced a healthy skepticism of such initiatives. There are, however, some signs that crime prevention is beginning to develop as a separate arm of criminal policy. Perhaps one of the most important lessons to be learned from experience in crime control to date is that only a combination of physical, environmental, managerial, and social measures is likely to be effective in reversing community decline and reducing local crime rates. Footnotes