Politics of Crime Prevention (From Crime Prevention in Australia: Issues in Policy and Research, P 255-274, 1997, Pat O'Malley and Adam Sutton, eds. -- See NCJ-184267)

• NCJ Number: 184279
• Author(s): Pat O'Malley
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: Federation Press (Distributed by Gaunt)
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Collected Work
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

Over the past decade, Australian police officials, criminologists, and politicians have begun to articulate a new rhetoric suggesting that traditional crime control methods have not been effective.

Abstract

These individuals claim the new rhetoric is supported by continually rising crime rates despite criminological research, traditional policing, and correctional interventions. As a result, they argue that an entirely new approach to dealing with crime is necessary, one that does not wait for crime to be committed but instead intervenes to stop crime before it occurs. In this context, situational crime prevention, community policing, and citizen involvement are proposed as more effective crime control strategies. The author discusses the politics of crime prevention in relation to the merits of particular crime prevention strategies. Consideration is paid to individual accountability and responsibility, socially oriented interventions, tensions in the politics of crime prevention in Australia, the importance of crime control program evaluation, and the role of the criminologist in formulating effective crime control policies and approaches. 72 references