NCJ Number
229309
Date Published
2009
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines the development of "community safety" in England and Wales.
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the developments elsewhere in the crime prevention field, namely the evolving contours of "community safety" as referent for diverse preventive approaches, and the evolution of an infrastructure of local partnerships. Also outlined is how community safety emerged in England and Wales as an alternative to the police-dominated, technologically-driven, and situationally-oriented approaches that prevailed throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s in Britain. It assesses five different narratives of community safety, in relationship to wider social and criminal justice policies and institutional practices. It advances a "power-dependence" framework that is sensitive to the uneven distribution of resources, the contested nature of political power, and the importance of local traditions and cultures, also referred to as local "geo-historical contexts." Highlighted are outcomes for ways of governing crime under the umbrella of community safety that are not impeded by the prevailing neo-liberal or moral authoritarian dogma, so evident in much central government policy in England and Wales. Also discussed are the local and regional differences that prevail both within and between England and Wales. Finally, this chapter argues for comparative studies within national jurisdictions in order to highlight the contested nature of implementation and the scope for political struggles over the direction and substance of governmental programs. Notes and references