Community safety is considered an aspect of the quality of life. This is whereby people, both individually and collectively are protected from hazards as well as threats that may arise due to the anti-social or criminal behavior of other people, and are assisted to cope with the people that they encounter. The fear of crime can have an effect in the manner which individuals feel regarding their community. Crime safety also referred to as crime reduction, localized action against crime, or community safety is mostly practiced by the authority workers and police officers. Community crime prevention aims at introducing social and physical changes to the local communities to make sure that there is balance along with preventing crime or a disorder from occurring. Crime prevention is mainly classified into three primary strategies; primary, secondary, including tertiary prevention. The primary prevention mainly focuses on the general population, aimed at preventing the occurrence of a crime. The secondary prevention particularly targets risky population, while the tertiary prevention targets the individual. This report addresses community crime prevention by answering the following research questions;
Preventing crime aims at reducing or deterring crime and criminals from engaging in criminal activities. The criminal justice agencies, non-governmental agencies, and individuals implement crime prevention strategies with the intention of maintaining order and enforcing the law (Ceccato and Dolmen, 2013, pp.97). Despite deterring crime, these strategies also aim at reducing victimization in the society. Nonetheless, there are many objectives that are linked to crime prevention with the primary objective being to reduce and deter criminal activities (Erete, 2013, pp.28). As a result, through public policy, several criminal justice agencies have come up with strategies with the intention of preventing crime. Also, there are programs such as the Neighborhood watch programs, graffiti prevention or promotion programs, the ‘reclaim the night’ event, and the ‘Crimestoppers’ program that aim at preventing crime.
Realizing community crime prevention requires the articulation of the necessary professional competencies. These competencies reflect on the populations’ issues along with the issues to be served through preventive action. Crime prevention practices go beyond specific short-term projects, to embedded long-term programs (Morgan and Homel, 2013, pp.1). The reason behind this is that designing and delivering effective crime prevention outcomes is basically complex, and this reflects on the multifaceted nature and the complexity of the underlying causes of crime. As such, these strategies and programs are built through the use of multiple interventions to address the linked issues such as mix policing, public education, as well as the physical design measures in controlling alcohol consumption with the intention of preventing public violence and the related offenses which may include drunk driving. The specific practices that consist of these interventions are implemented simultaneously or in a tightly organized and logical sequence.
In community crime prevention, there are several strategies that are applied and they comprise of the situational strategy, social strategy, community policing strategy, developmental strategy, and environmental strategy.
The situational crime prevention strategy entails creating situations that make it difficult for individuals to break the law, hence making it a little easy to get caught and making such crime to be difficult or even less rewarding to carry out. In this case, the crime prevention techniques are classified into five; enhancing the effort associated with offending, enhancing the risks associated with offending, minimizing the situational factors that influence a person’s propensity to offend, minimizing the rewards that are associated with committing a crime, and eliminating the excuses for offending behavior (Freilich, 2015, pp.143). The application of these community crime prevention techniques has been widely applied, especially in areas that surround shopping centers where there has been the installation of security cameras to prevent as well as deter possible criminals (Raymen, 2016, pp.497). Other such examples include certain powers that have been placed upon the police officers, particularly those under the Children (Protection and Parental Responsibility) Act 1997 (NSW) which gives them power to pick and take children to their respective homes if they feel that they might be at risk of getting involved in any form of anti-social behavior (Gill, et al., 2014, pp.413). This acts as another type of a situational crime prevention strategy since it prevents the youth from getting involved in any likely form of criminal activity.
The situational crime prevention strategy is based on the crime pattern theory, routine theory, as well as the rational choice theory. This type of strategy primarily aims at reducing crime through the provision of settings that make it less conducive for a criminal to attack (Huisman and Van Erp, 2013, pp.1183). Unlike the three theories, the situational crime prevention strategy focuses on the criminals and on the environment within which crime is carried out. For instance, the cameras installed in the cities for surveillance purposes helps in deterring criminals from carrying out criminal activities and assists the police to find involved culprits who commit a crime and get away with it. The key objective of this strategy is to protect individuals from criminals by making sure that safety measures such as the surveillance cameras are put in place.
Just like the situational crime prevention strategy, the policing strategy is also essential in crime prevention. The primary goal of community policing is to make sure the police actually assist the citizens in curbing crimes before they take place. Policing should always be proactive and by enhancing the manner in which the police combat crime helps in reducing it (Braga, Papachristos and Hureau, 2014, pp.641). Despite that the police might be reluctant in changing their ways, with additional training, this change can be managed. If community crime is to be reduced, policing should be considered an essential aspect. This strategy ensures that the police and the community are working together with a shared objective of curbing crime. The community policing strategy is effective in the community since it establishes a good and a trusting relationship between the citizens and the police (Bullock, 2013, pp.133). Along with ensuring a strong relationship between the two, this strategy is also effective in assisting the police to recognize the community needs. Such partnerships help the police familiarize themselves with the individual members within the society. Additionally, the police are able to remember essential information regarding the people who are of risk to the society.
Regarding all the aspects of community policing strategy, there are advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages associated with this strategy is that it assists in reducing the fear that people may have. As a result, this develops a sense of trust between the society and the police, making civilians to feel safer (Reynald, 2015, pp.76). However, a disadvantage of this strategy is that lack of trust between the community as well as the involvement of the community makes it difficult for the police to do anything regarding crime prevention. This is because if the police lack first-hand knowledge of certain problem within the community, it makes it hard for them to solve it. Also, due to this, the police may fail to acknowledge citizens that are at a greater risk in the community. For instance, most of the people find it difficult to trust the police, particularly in the ethnic minority communities whereby individuals have the notion that the police are racist.
Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) involves a multidisciplinary approach of preventing criminal behavior using environmental design. Aimed at attaining the deterrence effects of the criminal acts, this strategy is designed to depend on its ability to influence the decision made by the offenders, which precedes the criminal act (Cozens and Love, 2015, pp.407). As such, the strategy is observed to be an approach used in solving problems, by putting into consideration the environmental conditions as well as the opportunities for the occurrence of a criminal behavior. Hence, the CPTED strategy makes use of the perceived opportunities that are considered responsible for leading to criminal behavior by controlling access, define ownership, create an opportunity of seeing and being seen, along with encouraging territory maintenance. Unlike other strategies that may make use of target hardening, the CPTED strategy puts much attention on the design in preventing community crimes (Ekblom, et al., 2013, pp.100). Additionally, the strategy encourages the prevention of community crime by use of design and place, while the policing strategy values responding to community crimes through identification and arresting the offenders.
As a proactive strategy in preventing community crime, CPTED makes use of the built environment in controlling human behavior, resulting in a decline in fear, and resulting in an improved quality of life (Gibson and Johnson, 2016, pp.263). Environmental modifications are regarded to be more effective when implemented with increased lighting, enhancing sightlines, access control points, landscaping, and accessing places to hide and altering them to make such an environment less attractive to potential criminals. The strategy contains four main precepts which are regarded to be very effective and they comprise natural access controls, maintenance, surveillance, including territorial enforcement.
Surveillance is further analyzed into natural or formal surveillance. In itself, surveillance is meant to instill a sense of safety to the community while creating fear among criminals. The natural access control makes use of the physical barriers to define a distinction between public and private property (Owusu, et al., 2015, pp.256). On the other hand, the territorial reinforcement supports the natural access control by making use of similar barriers and objects in assigning space to specific demographics. In the absence of territorial reinforcement, the skateboarders mostly make use of building’s landscape in carrying out their activities. Applying the CPTED’s four percepts, businesses, owners, and the community in general experience an increased level of security around their property, along with an improved rate of positive activity which is complemented with a decline in victimization rates and crime.
Community crime prevention can also be enhanced through social development. It is evident that from crime dating, most of the offenders who are involved in criminal activities are young males. These individuals are observed to engage in crime after school hours as they await their parents to arrive home from work. The youth are enticed to engage in crime due to lack of educational, social, and recreational opportunities (Eversole, Barraket and Luke, 2013, pp.253). Preventing crime through the use of social development is a proactive approach of the poling model within a community that aims at identifying and addressing the root causes of crime. The aim of the social development strategy is to provide the youths within the community with opportunities for healthy and safe recreation along with deterring criminal exposure. However, this strategy is considered to be more effective in low-income communities (Lynch and Stretesky, 2013, pp.13). If the young generation gets occupied, specifically through sports or even through employment, they are unlikely to wander in the streets creating activities for themselves.
Conclusion
Community crime prevention, in all its forms, is the proactive action taken against criminal activity with the primary objective of addressing and prohibiting criminal activities before they occur. There are several community crime prevention strategies that are employed by both private organizations and government from a critical perspective. Mainly, these strategies are classified into situational and social crime prevention strategies. The other strategies include preventing crime through social development, community policing, and through environmental design. The situational crime prevention strategy involves coming up with situations which make it hard for people to break the law. On the other hand, the social development strategy aims at providing youths with opportunities for healthy and safe recreation along with deterring criminal exposure. The community policing strategy makes sure that the police help the community curb crimes before they take place. Also, the CPTED strategy is used in solving problems by considering the environmental conditions and the opportunities for the occurrence of a criminal behavior.
References
Braga, A.A., Papachristos, A.V. and Hureau, D.M., 2014. The effects of hot spots policing on crime: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Justice quarterly, 31(4), pp.633-663.
Bullock, K., 2013. Community, intelligence-led policing and crime control. Policing and society, 23(2), pp.125-144.
Ceccato, V. and Dolmen, L., 2013. Crime prevention in rural Sweden. European journal of criminology, 10(1), pp.89-112.
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Ekblom, P., Armitage, R., Monchuk, L. and Castell, B., 2013. Crime prevention through environmental design in the United Arab Emirates: a suitable case for reorientation?. Built Environment, 39(1), pp.92-113.
Erete, S.L., 2013. Empowerment through community crime-prevention technologies. interactions, 20(6), pp.27-31.
Eversole, R., Barraket, J. and Luke, B., 2013. Social enterprises in rural community development. Community Development Journal, 49(2), pp.245-261.
Freilich, J.D., 2015. Beccaria and situational crime prevention. Criminal Justice Review, 40(2), pp.131-150.
Gibson, V. and Johnson, D., 2016. CPTED, but not as we know it: Investigating the conflict of frameworks and terminology in crime prevention through environmental design. Security Journal, 29(2), pp.256-275.
Gill, C., Weisburd, D., Telep, C.W., Vitter, Z. and Bennett, T., 2014. Community-oriented policing to reduce crime, disorder and fear and increase satisfaction and legitimacy among citizens: A systematic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(4), pp.399-428.
Huisman, W. and Van Erp, J., 2013. Opportunities for environmental crime: A test of situational crime prevention theory. British journal of criminology, 53(6), pp.1178-1200.
Lynch, M.J. and Stretesky, P.B., 2013. The distribution of water-monitoring organizations across states: Implications for community environmental policing and social justice. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 36(1), pp.6-26.
Morgan, A. and Homel, P., 2013. Evaluating crime prevention: Lessons from large-scale community crime prevention programs. Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice, (458), p.1.
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Raymen, T., 2016. Designing-in crime by designing-out the social? Situational crime prevention and the intensification of harmful subjectivities. The British Journal of Criminology, 56(3), pp.497-514.
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