NCJ Number
160866
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1996) Pages: 21-39
Date Published
1996
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This paper reports on a British ethnographic research case study of a crime prevention project that sought to transfer the mechanisms used in one project deemed effective to a different location.
Abstract
The Kirkholt Burglary Prevention Project (England) has been hailed by academics and policymakers as one of the most successful crime prevention projects undertaken in the United Kingdom. Another project attempted to transfer the essential characteristics and mechanisms of the Kirkholt Project to a locality within a city in the southeast of England. The Tenmouth Burglary Project was one of nine crime-prevention initiatives that constituted a larger research study undertaken by a team of researchers. Both the Kirkholt and the Tenmouth Project shared the same core aims. These were the reduction of burglary in the targeted area, the delivery of the crime-reduction mechanisms through a multiagency approach, and the eventual local community ownership of the project. Further, the two projects shared the same procedural mechanisms. The ethnographic case study of the Tenmouth Project shows that a variety of variables that impacted the project's development made it significantly different from the Kirkholt Project, thus fostering different outcomes. The authors argue that the evaluation of the Kirkholt Project did not involve sufficient criteria and variables to provide guidance for transferring its components across social, cultural, spatial, and temporal contexts. This research shows the pivotal role of resources, both human and material, for the implementation of crime-prevention strategies. To understand why certain mechanisms and processes are more effective and more valuable within given contexts, program evaluations must be sensitive to the nature of those circumstances and evaluate them accordingly. 14 notes and 48 references