Crime Reduction and Community Safety (From Handbook of Policing, P 286-310, 2003, Tim Newburn, ed. -- See NCJ-203671)

• NCJ Number: 203676
• Author(s): Simon Byrne; Ken Pease
• Date Published: 2003
• Length: 25 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter analyzes crime-reduction and community-safety policies and practices in Great Britain and defines the appropriate goal for the police.

Abstract

The term "crime reduction" has been preferred to "crime prevention" in British government publications in order to emphasize that crime prevention results in crime reduction. "Crime reduction" has further been subsumed under the broad concept of "community safety," which encompasses safety from fire, disease, and other threats to community safety. The police and their focus on crime reduction thus becomes but one component of the government's responsibility to provide community safety. This chapter argues that recent legislation and government guidance have emphasized the importance of police working in partnership with other agencies in enhancing general public safety measures. This has led to little attention being given to the development of effective measures to reduce crime. The appropriate goal of the police in the effort to improve community safety is to champion evidence-based crime reduction, drawing on the resources and skills of other organizations in achieving this goal; where appropriate, the police should assign responsibility to other organizations in achieving specific crime-reduction objectives. This is especially true for early interventions designed to prevent high-risk children and youth from becoming serious delinquents who go on to become adult criminals. Such early interventions will require the cooperation of police, school officials, social services, medical services, and other appropriate agencies. It is the appropriate role of the police to assume the leadership in coordinating such crime-reduction efforts. Well-conceived and implemented early interventions can reduce the number of individuals who become habitual criminals, thus reducing crime. Target hardening and physical intervention can also be effective in reducing crime, particularly when they focus on crime "hotspots" and locations of repeat victimization. Police must be trained to engage in partnerships with other organizations whose expertise is needed in order to implement a broad strategy of crime reduction through early intervention and situational crime prevention. 9 notes and 81 references