NCJ Number
208435
Date Published
2004
Length
106 pages
Annotation
This guide provides lessons learned by the Street Crime Initiative (SCI) in the United Kingdom in terms of effective strategies to reduce street crime.
Abstract
The guide was designed to inform local policymakers and practitioners on best practices for reducing street crime in the short term. Thus, the focus is on practical measures that crime-fighting agencies can use to quickly reduce street crime. Data from a variety of sources were reviewed, including published research, reports to the SCI, police tactics produced by the Home Office Police Standards Unit, and advice from policymakers and practitioners. The report offers background information on the SCI, which began in 2002 as a response to sustained and accelerated increases in annual rates of robbery in England and Wales. Part 1 of the guide includes three sections that focus on developing effective street crime reduction strategies through a review of well-established principles and methods of problem-solving and crime control. Also included in part 1 is a discussion of the most effective way to assess outcomes of the crime fighting strategy. A problem-solving checklist is offered, as is a discussion of how to apply the problem-solving approach to the reduction of street crime. Part 2 focuses on implementing a street crime reduction strategy. The 2 sections included in part 2 present illustrations of how police can obtain data to inform their problem-solving process and offer a series of scenarios that outline responses to street crimes that have been proven effective in the field. These scenarios provide responses for student robbery, robbery of school aged children, robbery of cash machines, public transport and street crime, problem drug use associated with robbery, bag snatching from elderly women, commercial robbery, mobile phone robbery, and false reporting. Future research should continue to focus on local innovative strategies and creative responses to street crime that are grounded in systematic research and lessons from the field. Exhibits, figures, tables, notes, suggested readings