essay about crime prevention

Essay on Crime Prevention

Crime is a global problem affecting each and every country. Every country suffers from increased crime rates which result to insecurities and a negative impact on the economy. This increased crime rate is fueled by poverty, parental negligence, low self-esteem, alcohol, and drug abuse, resulting from the lack of proper moral values (Topalli & Wright, 2014). Moral values are responsible for determining what is right and wrong and also establish what is socially acceptable. They are ideas considered by society as important and contribute to one’s general personality, and thus, without them, an individual is lost. It is significant to prevent crimes to raise the quality of life of all citizens. Preventing crimes also results to long-term benefits as it reduces social cost resulting from crimes and the costs involved with the formal criminal justice system. In order to prevent these crimes, there is the need to develop evidence-based and comprehensive approaches addressing several factors impacting crimes, including moral values on growing children.

Crimes result from negative moral values, and thus there is a need to promote positive youth development and wellbeing. Horace Mann believes that this prevalence of crime in society could be reduced by moral instruction in schools (Spring, 2019). He argues that for the crime rate to reduce, the moral value of the general public needs to be shaped accordingly. According to him, the most accurate method of doing this is by incorporating moral instruction in the education system. He referred to this method as putting a police officer in every child’s heart. This would enable the child to be conscious of the evil in society and be aware of good and bad. This would guide them as they grow up and prevent them from engaging or committing any crime.

The American Education book portrays crime as a global nuisance, and the more accurate and effective method to prevent it is through education. Mann suggests in this book that the number of police required by society would significantly be reduced by schooling. Thus, education is portrayed as a source of knowledge and a significant tool that would help reduce crime rates remarkably. It is supposed to do this by allowing students to acquire more educational attainment that leads to high paying jobs and thus higher earnings, which increases the opportunity cost of crime and consequently reducing crime. Mann also believes that education would reduce the crime rate by affecting individuals’ personality traits associated with crime. This is done by making students become patient, disciplined and moral. Despite this being a more suitable method of preventing crimes in society, it is not as effective as Mann and other researchers rate it.

Mann theory of preventing crime through schooling is a considerate method, but it is not enough to do so. There is no causal relationship between crime rates and school attendance (Lochner, 2020). It is assumed that schooling and crime rates are related, and thus if school attendance is increased, a consequent crime reduction would be noticed. However, this is wrong, and Mann theory has not proved a reality. According to Joel et al. (2021), the percentage of 5-to 17-years-old students increased from 82.2 in 1959-1960 to 91.9 percent in 2004-2005. The average days of attendance also increased from 160.2 in 1959-1960 to 169.2 in 1999-2000. There was also a rapid increase in violent crimes in 1960-2000 from 160.9 to 506.5 per 100,000 residence (Spring, 2019). As the number of students attending school and the attendance days increased from 1960 to 2004, so did the crime rate. This is proof that the crime rate is irrespective of the number of students going to school and the average days of attendance, and thus Mann theory is ineffective.

Moral value instruction is a vital tool to prevent crimes but implementing it only through schooling, such as Mann suggested, is not only a failing strategy but a waste of time and resources. Moral values in children need to be implemented in many different ways to ensure that they stick as they develop into adults (Damon, 2008). Implementing these moral values would ensure that they grow into morally upright adults, thus reducing crime rates. Implementing moral value through schooling is advised, but it would work with a combination of many other methods including through religion and good parenting. Religion helps in the spiritual growth of a person and emphasizes moral codes aimed to develop values such as social competence and self-control, which are major virtues in crime hating people. According to the study done by Brown and Taylor (2007) on how religion impacts child development, it was found that social competence and the psychological adjustment of third-graders were positive influenced with several religious factors. This shows that religion helps in developing children to become adults with a positive and better judgement that would keep them from engaging in any crime and thus would contribute to crime rate reduction.

Parents are responsible for their children, and they are required to guard and guide them as they contribute to their personality. According to Penn (2015), how a child turns out as an adult depends on how their parents brought them up. As a result of this, it is crucial for parents to be careful of how they handle their children. It is the responsibility of every citizen of a county to help fight and prevent crimes, and thus it is the responsibility of parents to reduce the crime rate by training their children to be better people in future. They should be consistent with rules and monitor their children behaviour to ensure that they instil good moral value in them, equipping them with the knowledge of good and evil. If a child is raised in a way that makes them hate crime, then they would not engage in any, and this would contribute to the general reduction of crime in the society.

In conclusion, the main way of preventing crime is by instilling positive moral values on growing children to ensure that they develop into morally upright adults who would not engage in criminal activities. It is assumed that to instil this moral values in children and prevent crimes in future, the best way is through schooling. But this is not the case as there is no causal relationship between crime rates and schooling, and thus schooling will not necessarily result to a reduced crime rate. In order to ensure that moral values are successfully instilled in children, schooling would have to be combined with other methods, some of which include religion and good parenting, resulting in adults who are conscious of good and evil. Increased crime rate is a problem experienced by all countries globally, and the only way to fight it is by shaping the personality of the future generation by instilling positive moral values as their driving force.

Topalli, V., & Wright, R. (2014).  Affect and the dynamic foreground of predatory street crime  (1st ed.).

Spring, J. (2019). American Education.  https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429274138

Lochner, L. (2020). Education and crime.  The Economics Of Education , 109-117.  https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-815391-8.00009-4

Joel, M., Bill, H., Jijun, Z., Xiaolei, W., Ke, W., & Sarah, H. et al. (2021).  National Center for Education Statistics: The Condition of Education 2019. NCES 2019-144 . ERIC. Retrieved 5 July 2021, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED594978.

Damon, W. (2008).  Moral child: Nurturing children’s natural moral growth  (3rd ed.). FREE Press.

Brown, S., & Taylor, K. (2007). Religion and education: Evidence from the National Child Development Study.  Journal Of Economic Behavior & Organization ,  63 (3), 439-460.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2005.08.003

Penn, H. (2015).  Understanding early childhood  (3rd ed.). Open University Press.

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Essay on Crime Prevention

Students are often asked to write an essay on Crime Prevention in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Crime Prevention

Understanding crime prevention.

Crime prevention is the act of stopping crime before it happens. This is done by identifying the causes of crime and finding ways to reduce them. It’s like a doctor who tries to prevent illness by promoting healthy habits.

Types of Crime Prevention

There are two main types of crime prevention. The first is ‘primary prevention’ which aims to stop crime before it starts. It includes things like education and community programs. The second type is ‘secondary prevention’. This focuses on areas or people at high risk of crime.

Importance of Crime Prevention

Crime prevention is important because it helps keep our communities safe. It also reduces the cost of law enforcement and the justice system. By preventing crime, we can create a better society for everyone to live in.

Role of the Community

The community plays a big role in crime prevention. Everyone can help by reporting suspicious activity to the police, participating in neighborhood watch programs, and teaching children about the dangers of crime.

In conclusion, crime prevention is a vital part of maintaining a safe and peaceful society. Everyone has a role to play in preventing crime and creating a safe environment for all.

250 Words Essay on Crime Prevention

Crime prevention is all about stopping crime before it happens. It’s like a game plan to keep people safe. This plan includes things like making laws, teaching people about safety, and having police officers around to help.

The Importance of Crime Prevention

Crime prevention is very important because it helps keep our community safe. Without it, there would be more crime and people would not feel safe. When people feel safe, they can do their work better, kids can play outside, and the community can grow stronger.

Ways to Prevent Crime

There are many ways to prevent crime. One way is through laws. Laws tell us what we can and cannot do. When we break a law, there are consequences like fines or jail time. This can stop people from doing bad things.

Another way is through education. Schools and community groups can teach people about the dangers of crime and how to stay safe. This can help people make good choices and avoid dangerous situations.

Police officers also play a big role. They patrol our streets and respond to emergencies. Their presence can deter criminals and make people feel safer.

Role of Community in Crime Prevention

The community also has a big role in crime prevention. People can look out for each other and report suspicious activities to the police. Community programs can also provide support and resources to those in need, which can reduce crime.

In conclusion, crime prevention is a team effort that includes laws, education, police, and community involvement. By working together, we can create a safer and happier place for everyone.

500 Words Essay on Crime Prevention

Crime prevention is all about stopping crime before it happens. It is a way to keep people safe and maintain peace in our communities.

There are two main types of crime prevention: primary and secondary.

Primary prevention stops crime before it starts. It includes things like better lighting in dark areas, security cameras, and community programs to teach people about safety.

Secondary prevention is about stopping crime that has already started. This could be through police work or community efforts to help people who might be at risk of committing crimes.

The Role of the Community

The community plays a big part in crime prevention. Community members can work together to watch out for each other and report suspicious activity. They can also create programs to help people who might be at risk of committing crimes. This could include things like after-school programs for kids or job training for adults.

Role of Law Enforcement Agencies

Law enforcement agencies are also vital in crime prevention. They can patrol neighborhoods to deter criminals, investigate crimes, and arrest people who break the law. They also work with communities to develop strategies to prevent crime.

Importance of Education

Education is a powerful tool for crime prevention. By teaching people about the law and the consequences of breaking it, we can help them make better choices. Schools can play a big part in this by teaching students about the risks and consequences of crime.

Effectiveness of Crime Prevention

Crime prevention can be very effective. It can reduce crime rates and make communities safer places to live. It can also save money by reducing the costs associated with crime, like police work and court costs.

In conclusion, crime prevention is a crucial part of maintaining peace and safety in our communities. It involves everyone, from law enforcement to community members to educators. By working together, we can prevent crime and create safer, happier places to live.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Crime On Society
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• Essay on College Depression

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Crime Prevention - Free Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

Crime prevention refers to the strategies, practices, and policies aimed at reducing or deterring criminal behavior in communities. Essays on crime prevention could explore the various approaches to crime prevention, such as community policing, situational prevention, or social intervention programs. They might also delve into the evaluation of crime prevention initiatives, the role of stakeholders like law enforcement, community organizations, and policymakers, or the ethical, social, and economic considerations surrounding crime prevention. Additionally, essays might explore the impact of crime prevention on community safety, social justice, and human rights. We’ve gathered an extensive assortment of free essay samples on the topic of Crime Prevention you can find in Papersowl database. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

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Introduction Situational crime prevention centers more around the window of opportunity to break the law. In addition, situational crime prevention looks to lessen the damages brought about by criminal acts through adjusting quick or situational factors in the conditions where criminal acts routinely happen. Alcohol is one of the many factors that take part in criminal activities and violence. Consuming excessive amounts of alcohol can bring down restraints, hinder an individual's judgment and increment the danger of forceful practices. Because […]

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Determining causes of crime and deviant behavior is a key goal for law enforcement officers in order for them to effectively implement public policy and better protect civilians. One contemporary theory that seeks to understand the causes of crime and deviance, and conceptualized by Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess, is the social learning theory of crime. According to this theory, crime is a result of learned social behavior. It incorporates Edwin H. Sutherland’s theory of differential association. Sutherland proposed nine […]

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Safeguarding Communities: a Dynamic Symphony of Crime Prevention

In the intricate mosaic of societal dynamics, the artistry of crime prevention emerges as a masterstroke, weaving a narrative of safety, resilience, and communal prosperity. Far beyond the conventional scope of law enforcement, crime prevention paints its canvas with strokes of education, community synergy, and avant-garde strategies. In navigating the labyrinthine complexities of the contemporary world, the imperative of crime prevention becomes increasingly conspicuous, shaping the present while sculpting the contours of our collective future. At its core, crime prevention […]

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Crime prevention stands as a paramount concern in contemporary societies, reflecting the intricate interplay of socio-economic, cultural, and institutional factors. This essay critically examines various crime prevention strategies, evaluating their efficacy and implications within diverse contexts. At the forefront of crime prevention approaches lies situational crime prevention (SCP), which emphasizes altering the immediate environment to discourage criminal activity. Strategies such as target hardening, surveillance, and environmental design aim to increase the perceived effort, risk, and reward of committing a crime. […]

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Essay About Crime Prevention On the other end of the spectrum, are those who believe crime leads to deviant behavior because it has become a realm for criminal activity, for example, bribery, doping, and discrimination (Pajcic & Sokanovic, 2011). Due to the amount of division in the perception of crime and sports, it has lead to a substantial number of tests and research done on the positive and negative correlation between the two. Henceforth, negative or positive, both crime and sports are multi-faceted concepts, which encompass many controversial topics, while having many correlations. But even with a relation between sports and crime, the positives of the two variables working in conjunction with one another, outweigh any cons that may arise. Athletics have always been used as a form of intervention and assimilation for communities and prisons (Darko, 2015). Delinquency and sports participation are both prominent developmental themes during adolescence. Pre-adulthood plays an instrumental role in delinquency and crime because youth become more self-sufficient and begin to shy away from the guidance of their parents; they begin to make a shift of dependency towards their community, school peers and after-school activities (Fredricks & Eccles, 2008). This is why when studying the relationship between sports and crime; it is important and relevant to evaluate the affiliation during adolescence. Participating in sports builds a foundation of discipline and mental strength for participants as well as increases responsibility. (All Gymnastics Company, 2017) As demonstrated in Richardson’s, Cameron’s, and Berlouis’s study, participating in sports has the ability to improve self-esteem, cognitive reasoning abilities and provide participants with a feeling of purpose (Richardson, Cameron & Berlouis, 2017). Specifically, in the criminal justice system, sports coupled with education provide inmates with a form of rehabilitation and a pathway to re-assimilate into society after jail (UNODC, 2018). Further, preventative measures through athletics and physical activity, allows juvenile crime rates to decrease (Darko, 2015). Through sports, participants learn the value of hard work and sacrifice. Classical criminal tactics for young adults no longer suffice in today’s society and Darko attributes the reappearance of adolescents in detention centers as a primary reason for governments to implement alternative methods to assist juveniles. There is an increasing number of crimes associated with young adults, (Darko, 2015) so it is important to understand the purpose of athletics and how it ensures a form of discipline that allows participants to curve crime and behavioral issues. These measures have also been tested in other countries where crime rates were also very high. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have created a program, which helps to alleviate potential crime in countries by creating a crime prevention program in the following areas: State of Qatar, Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, and South Africa to name a few (UNODC, 2018). These programs assist in alleviating lawlessness in the countries while improving psychological and physical health. This initiative prides itself on its resilience against crime, violence, and drug use while providing children with essential life skills, communication tactics and self-discipline, which helps to navigate against criminal activity. With almost 2,000 participants, UNODC’s youth crime prevention initiative not only impacts schools, youth centers, and young adults but also the communities it inhabits itself in (UNODC, 2018). Oliver Staple, UNODC’s program manager responsible for the curriculum, stressed the importance of athletics at his crime prevention banquet, saying sports have a fundamental impact in the community and it was only a matter of time before the program began using it as a tool to advance crime prevention (UNODC, 2018). 

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1 Crime Prevention and Public Policy

Brandon C. Welsh is a Professor of Criminology at Northeastern University, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Visiting Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement in Amsterdam and a Steering Committee member of the Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group.

David P. Farrington is Emeritus Professor of Psychological Criminology in the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge, England.

• Published: 18 September 2012
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This article introduces crime prevention, which often refers to the attempts to prevent crime or criminal offending before the actual act has been committed. It studies four main crime prevention strategies, namely developmental prevention , community prevention , situational prevention , and criminal justice prevention . It provides an overview of the key theories that support these strategies and notes some relevant research on effectiveness. This article also considers the development of crime prevention in the United States and identifies several key issues that challenge the prevention of crime.

Crime prevention has come to mean many different things to many different people. Programs and policies designed to prevent crime can include the police making an arrest as part of an operation to deal with gang problems, a court sanction to a secure correctional facility, or, in the extreme, a death penalty sentence. These measures are more correctly referred to as crime control or repression. More often, though, crime prevention refers to efforts to prevent crime or criminal offending in the first instance—before the act has been committed. Both forms of crime prevention share a common goal of trying to prevent the occurrence of a future criminal act, but what further distinguishes crime prevention from crime control is that prevention takes place outside of the confines of the formal justice system. 1 In this respect, prevention is considered the fourth pillar of crime reduction, alongside the institutions of police, courts, and corrections (Waller 2006 ). This distinction draws attention to crime prevention as an alternative approach to these more traditional responses to crime.

In one of the first scholarly attempts to differentiate crime prevention from crime control, Peter Lejins ( 1967 , p. 2) espoused the following: “If societal action is motivated by an offense that has already taken place, we are dealing with control; if the offense is only anticipated, we are dealing with prevention.” What Lejins was trying to indicate was the notion of “pure” prevention, a view that had long existed in the scholarship and practice of American criminology (Welsh and Pfeffer 2011 ). It is this notion of crime prevention that is the chief concern of this volume.

There are many possible ways of classifying crime prevention programs. 2 An influential scheme distinguishes four major strategies (Tonry and Farrington 1995 b ). Developmental prevention refers to interventions designed to prevent the development of criminal potential in individuals, especially those targeting risk and protective factors discovered in studies of human development (Tremblay and Craig 1995 ; Farrington and Welsh 2007 ). Community prevention refers to interventions designed to change the social conditions and institutions (e.g., families, peers, social norms, clubs, organizations) that influence offending in residential communities (Hope 1995 ). Situational prevention refers to interventions designed to prevent the occurrence of crimes by reducing opportunities and increasing the risk and difficulty of offending (Clarke 1995 b ; Cornish and Clarke 2003 ). Criminal justice prevention refers to traditional deterrent, incapacitative, and rehabilitative strategies operated by law enforcement and agencies of the criminal justice system (Blumstein, Cohen, and Nagin 1978 ; MacKenzie 2006 ).

In Building a Safer Society: Strategic Approaches to Crime Prevention , Michael Tonry and David Farrington ( 1995 a ) purposely did not address criminal justice prevention in any substantial fashion. This was because this strategy had been adequately addressed in many other scholarly books and, more importantly, there was a growing consensus for the need for governments to strike a greater balance between these emerging and promising alternative forms of crime prevention and some of the more traditional responses to crime. Also important in their decision to focus exclusively on developmental, community, and situational prevention is the shared focus of the three strategies on addressing the underlying causes or motivations that lead to a criminal event or a life of crime. Crucially, each strategy operates outside of the criminal justice system, representing an alternative, perhaps even a socially progressive, way to reduce crime. For these same reasons, we have adopted a similar approach in this volume.

A chief aim of this essay is to provide some background on this view of crime prevention. It also serves as an overview of the key theories that support these three main crime-prevention strategies, important research on effectiveness, and key issues that challenge the prevention of crime. Several observations and conclusions emerge:

Crime prevention is best viewed as an alternative approach to reducing crime, operating outside of the formal justice system. Developmental, community, and situational strategies define its scope.

Developmental prevention has emerged as an important strategy to improve children’s life chances and prevent them from embarking on a life of crime. The theoretical support for this approach is considerable and there is growing evidence based on the effectiveness of a range of intervention modalities.

Community crime prevention benefits from a sound theoretical base. It seemingly holds much promise for preventing crime, but less is known about its effectiveness. Advancing knowledge on this front is a top priority. Nevertheless, there are a wide range of effective models in community-based substance-use prevention and school-based crime prevention.

The theoretical origins of situational crime prevention are wide ranging and robust. The strategy boasts a growing evidence base of effective programs and many more that are promising. There is also evidence that crime displacement is a rare occurrence.

Crime prevention is an important component of an overall strategy to reduce crime and is widely supported by the public over place and time. A special focus on implementation science and higher quality evaluation designs will further advance crime-prevention knowledge and practice. Striking a greater balance between crime prevention and crime control will go a long way toward building a safer, more sustainable society.

The organization of this essay is as follows. Section I looks at key historical events that have influenced the development of crime prevention in America. Sections II, III, and IV introduce, respectively, the major crime-prevention strategies of developmental, community, and situational prevention. Section V discusses a number of important cross-cutting issues.

I. A Short History of Crime Prevention in America

The modern-day history of crime prevention in America is closely linked with a loss of faith in the criminal justice system that occurred in the wake of the dramatic increase in crime rates in the 1960s. This loss of faith was caused by a confluence of factors, including declining public support for the criminal justice system, increasing levels of fear of crime, and criminological research that demonstrated that many of the traditional modes of crime control were ineffective and inefficient in reducing crime and improving the safety of communities (Curtis 1987 ). For example, research studies on motorized preventive patrol, rapid response, and criminal investigations—the staples of law enforcement—showed that they had little or no effect on crime (Visher and Weisburd 1998 ). It was becoming readily apparent among researchers and public officials alike that a criminal justice response on its own was insufficient for the task of reducing crime. This observation applied not only to law enforcement but also to the courts and prisons (Tonry and Farrington 1995 b ). Interestingly, this loss of faith in the justice system was not unique to the United States. Similar developments were taking place in Canada, the United Kingdom, and other Western European countries, and for some of the same reasons (Waller 1990 ; Bennett 1998 ).

writing in the mid-1980s, the observations of American urban affairs scholar Paul Lavrakas perhaps best captures this need to move beyond the sole reliance on the criminal justice system:

Until we change the emphasis of our public policies away from considering the police, courts, and prisons to be the primary mechanisms for reducing crime, I believe that we will continue to experience the tragic levels of victimization with which our citizens now live. These criminal justice agencies are our means of reacting to crime—they should not be expected to prevent it by themselves. (1985, p. 110, emphasis in original)

These events, coupled with recommendations of presidential crime commissions of the day—the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice ( 1967 ), chaired by Nicholas Katzenbach, and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence ( 1969 ), chaired by Milton S. Eisenhower—ushered in an era of innovation of alternative approaches to addressing crime. A few years later, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals ( 1973 ) sought to reaffirm the role of the community in preventing crime. Operating outside of the purview of the justice system, crime prevention came to be defined as an alternative, non–criminal justice means of reducing crime.

A focus on neighborhood, family, and employment was at the heart of this new approach to addressing crime, with a special emphasis on the most impoverished inner-city communities. Nonprofit organizations were the main vehicle used to deliver programs in these substantive areas. A number of situational or opportunity-reducing measures were also implemented to ensure the immediate safety of residents. Some of these programs included neighborhood patrols and block watches (Curtis 1987 , p. 11). By some accounts, this urban crime-prevention and reconstruction movement produced a number of models of success and many more promising programs (see Curtis 1985 , 1987 ).

This mode of crime prevention also came to be known as community-based crime prevention , an amalgam of social and situational measures (see Rosenbaum 1986 , 1988 ). The approach was popularized with a number of large-scale, multisite programs referred to as comprehensive community initiatives (Hope 1995 ; Rosenbaum, Lurigio, and Davis 1998 ). Examples included T-CAP (Texas City Action Plan to Prevent Crime) and PACT (Pulling America’s Communities Together).

The roots of this comprehensive approach—on the social side, at least—go as far back as the early 1930s, with Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay’s Chicago Area Project (CAP; Shaw and McKay 1942 ). The CAP was designed to produce social change in communities that suffered from high delinquency rates and gang activity. Local civic leaders coordinated social service centers that promoted community solidarity and counteracted social disorganization, and they developed other programs for youths, including school-related activities and recreation. Some evaluations indicated desirable results, but others showed that CAP efforts did little to reduce delinquency (see Schlossman and Sedlak 1983 ).

The New York City–based Mobilization for Youth (MOBY) program of the 1960s is another example of this type of crime-prevention initiative. Funded by more than $50 million, MOBY attempted an integrated approach to community development (Short 1974 ). Based on Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin’s ( 1960 ) concept of providing opportunities for legitimate success, MOBY created employment opportunities in the community, coordinated social services, and sponsored social-action groups such as tenants’ committees, legal-action services, and voter registration. But the program ended for lack of funding amid questions about its utility and use of funds.

A newer generation of these programs, which includes the well-established Communities That Care (CTC) strategy developed by David Hawkins and Richard Catalano ( 1992 ), incorporates principles of public health and prevention science—identifying key risk factors for offending and implementing evidence-based prevention methods designed to counteract them. The CTC has become the best developed and tested of these prevention systems.

By the early 1990s, crime prevention found itself in the national spotlight, although not always to the liking of its supporters. This came about during the lead up to and subsequent passage of the federal crime bill of 1994—the most expensive initiative in history (Donziger 1996 ). Known officially as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, it ultimately became famous for its authorization of funding to put 100,000 new police officers on the streets, as well as infamous for making 60 more federal crimes eligible for the death penalty and authorizing $10 billion for new prison construction. Crime-prevention programs (in the broadest sense) were allocated a sizable $7 billion, but most of this was used on existing federal programs like Head Start in order to keep them afloat (Gest 2001 ).

From the beginning of the bill’s debate on Capitol Hill and across the country, crime prevention—especially programs for at-risk youth—was heavily criticized. The growing political thirst to get tough on juvenile and adult criminals alike, with an array of punitive measures, sought to paint prevention and its supporters as soft on crime. Midnight basketball became their scapegoat. Prevention was characterized as nothing more than pork-barreling—wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars. The end result of all of this was mixed: crime prevention had received substantial funding, but it had been relegated to the margins in the public discourse on crime (Mendel 1995 ).

In more recent years, crime prevention has emerged as an important component of an overall strategy to reduce crime. One reason for this is the widely held view of the need to strike a greater balance between prevention and punishment (Waller 2006 ). Another key reason has to do with a growing body of scientific evidence showing that many different types of crime-prevention programs are effective (Sherman et al. 1997 , 2006 ; Welsh and Farrington 2006 ) and many of these programs save money (Drake, Aos, and Miller 2009 ). Not surprisingly, the economic argument for prevention has attracted a great deal of interest from policymakers and political leaders (Greenwood 2006 ; Mears 2010 ). The recent evidence-based movement (see Welsh and Farrington 2011 ) has figured prominently in these developments in raising the profile of crime prevention.

II. Developmental Crime Prevention

The developmental perspective postulates that criminal offending in adolescence and adulthood is influenced by “behavioral and attitudinal patterns that have been learned during an individual’s development” (Tremblay and Craig 1995 , p. 151). The early years of the life course are most influential in shaping later experiences. As Greg Duncan and Katherine Magnuson ( 2004 , p. 101) note: “Principles of developmental science suggest that although beneficial changes are possible at any point in life, interventions early on may be more effective at promoting well-being and competencies compared with interventions undertaken later in life.” They further state that: “early childhood may provide an unusual window of opportunity for interventions because young children are uniquely receptive to enriching and supportive environments…. As individuals age, they gain the independence and ability to shape their environments, rendering intervention efforts more complicated and costly” (pp. 102–103).

Developmental prevention is informed generally by motivational or human development and life-course theories on criminal behavior, as well as by longitudinal studies that follow samples of young persons from their early childhood experiences to the peak of their involvement with crime in their teens and twenties. Developmental prevention aims to influence the scientifically identified risk factors or “root causes” of delinquency and later criminal offending.

The theoretical foundation of developmental prevention is robust, and is the subject of the two opening essays of this volume. Frank Cullen, Michael Benson, and Matthew Makarios overview the major developmental and life-course theories of offending, with a special interest in how the theories explain why some individuals “are placed on a pathway, or trajectory, toward a life in antisocial conduct and crime.” David Farrington, Rolf Loeber, and Maria Ttofi summarize the most important risk and protective factors for offending. They conclude that impulsiveness, school achievement, child-rearing methods, young mothers, child abuse, parental conflict, disrupted families, poverty, delinquent peers, and deprived neighborhoods are the most important factors that should be targeted in intervention research.

Richard Tremblay and Wendy Craig’s ( 1995 ) classic, sweeping review of developmental crime prevention documented its importance as a major strategy in preventing delinquency and later offending. It also identified three key characteristics of effective developmental prevention programs: (1) they lasted for a sufficient duration—at least one year; (2) they were multimodal, meaning that multiple risk factors were targeted with different interventions; and (3) they were implemented before adolescence. Since then, many other reviews have been carried out to assess the effectiveness of developmental prevention, often focusing on a specific intervention modality. This is the approach taken in the next three essays.

Holly Schindler and Hirokazu Yoshikawa review the evidence on preschool intellectual enrichment programs. They find that preschool interventions focused specifically on child-relevant processes (i.e., cognitive skills, behavior problems, or executive functioning) have shown impressive results. Equally desirable effects on long-term behavioral outcomes, including crime, have been demonstrated by what they call “two-generation” preschool programs, which also include a focus on parenting skills or offer comprehensive family services.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of parent training for children up to age five years, by Alex Piquero and Wesley Jennings, shows that this intervention is effective in reducing antisocial behavior and delinquency. The authors also find that parent-training programs produce a wide range of other important benefits for families, including improved school readiness and school performance on the part of children and greater employment and educational opportunities for parents. Training in child social skills, also known as social competence, is the subject of another systematic review and meta-analysis by Friedrich Lösel and Doris Bender. This type of intervention generally targets the risk factors of impulsivity, low empathy, and egocentrism. The authors find that the overall effect of skills training is desirable and that the most effective programs used a cognitive-behavioral approach and were implemented with older children and higher risk groups who were already exhibiting some behavioral problems.

In the final essay in this section, Deborah Gorman-Smith and Alana Vivolo take on the much broader subject of the prevention of female offending through a developmental approach. This is important because little is known about what may work for this population. Their review of prevention programs confirms that most studies continue to focus on male offending; the mostly poor evaluation designs of existing programs for girls and adolescent females prohibit a valid assessment of effectiveness, and a gendered analysis of mixed programs is often lacking.

III. Community Crime Prevention

More often than not, community-based efforts to prevent crime are thought to be some combination of developmental and situational prevention. Unlike these two crime-prevention strategies, there is little agreement in the academic literature on the definition of community prevention and the types of programs that fall within it. This stems from its early conceptions, with one view focused on the social conditions of crime and the ability of the community to regulate them, and another that “it operates at the level of whole communities regardless of the types of mechanisms involved” (Bennett 1996 , p. 169).

Tim Hope’s ( 1995 ) definition that community crime prevention involves actions designed to change the social conditions and institutions that influence offending in residential communities is by far the most informative. This is not just because it distinguishes community prevention from developmental and situational prevention, but also because it highlights the strength of the community to address the sometimes intractable social problems that lead to crime and violence. This focus on the social factors leaves aside physical redesign concepts, including Oscar Newman’s ( 1972 ) defensible space and C. Ray Jeffery’s ( 1971 ) crime prevention through environmental design. Ron Clarke ( 1992 , 1995 b ) describes how these important concepts are more correctly viewed as contributing to the early development of situational crime prevention.

Numerous theories have been advanced over the years to explain community-level influences on crime and offending and that serve as the basis of community crime-prevention programs (for excellent reviews, see Reiss and Tonry 1986 ; Farrington 1993 ; Sampson and Lauritsen 1994 ; Wikström 1998 ). Steven Messner and Gregory Zimmerman’s essay makes a unique contribution to this body of knowledge. Through a macro-sociological lens, the authors elucidate the distinguishing features and evolution of the community–crime link. In a separate essay, Wesley Skogan expounds on the nature of disorderly behavior and its relevance to crime, communities, and prevention. Of particular importance is the role that disorder may play in the destabilization and decline of neighborhoods.

While there is a rich theoretical and empirical literature on communities and crime, up until recently less was known about the effectiveness of community crime-prevention programs. Review after review on this subject—going back to Rosenbaum’s ( 1988 ) and Hope’s ( 1995 ) classics—have consistently reported that there are no program types with proven effectiveness in preventing crime. Importantly, this was not a claim that nothing works and that community crime prevention should be abandoned (Sherman 1997 ; Welsh and Hoshi 2006 ). Some program types were judged to be promising. 3

More recent research finds that some community-based programs can make a difference in preventing crime. Jens Ludwig and Julia Burdick-Will report on the effects of the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program, which gave vouchers to low-socioeconomic status (often, minority) families to enable them to move to better areas. The large-scale experimental test of the program, which involved 4,600 families in five cities across the country, showed that it was particularly effective in reducing violent crime by youths. The authors also discuss another similar poverty-deconcentration experiment in Chicago that was equally effective.

Christopher Sullivan and Darrick Jolliffe review the effectiveness of two well-known community-based crime-prevention modalities: peer influence and mentoring. They find that programs designed to influence peer risk factors for delinquency are somewhat promising, while mentoring, where the evaluation research is more extensive and robust, can be effective in preventing delinquency. In one systematic review and meta-analysis it was found that mentoring was more effective in reducing offending when the average duration of each contact between mentor and mentee was greater, in smaller scale studies, and when mentoring was combined with other interventions.

Important to all forms of crime prevention, but implicit in community prevention, is the element of partnerships among stakeholder agencies and individuals. Dennis Rosenbaum and Amie Schuck review and assess the literature on comprehensive community partnerships in the context of community crime prevention. They offer several key conclusions, including that these partnerships have wide public appeal, can be difficult to implement because of their complexity, and are most effective when there is a commitment to prevention science and evidence-based practice.

The next two essays diverge slightly from our focus on communities and the prevention of crime, but their importance to the field and this volume cannot be overstated. Abigail Fagan and David Hawkins review the evidence of the effectiveness of community-based substance-use prevention initiatives, while Denise Gottfredson, Philip Cook, and Chongmin Na summarize the evidence of the effectiveness of school-based crime-prevention programs. In both cases, the authors report on a number of successful preventive interventions for youths.

IV. Situational Crime Prevention

Situational prevention stands apart from the other crime-prevention strategies by its special focus on the setting or place in which criminal acts take place, as well as its crime-specific focus. No less important is situational prevention’s concern with products (e.g., installation of immobilizers on new cars in some parts of Europe, action taken to eliminate cellphone cloning in the United States) and on large-scale systems such as improvements in the banking system to reduce money laundering (Clarke 2009 ).

Situational crime prevention has been defined as “a preventive approach that relies, not upon improving society or its institutions, but simply upon reducing opportunities for crime” (Clarke 1992 , p. 3). Reducing opportunities for crime is achieved essentially through some modification or manipulation of the physical environment, products, or systems in order to directly affect offenders’ perceptions of increased risks and effort and decreased rewards, provocations, and excuses (Cornish and Clarke 2003 ). These different approaches serve as the basis of a highly detailed classification system of situational crime prevention, which can further be divided into 25 separate techniques, each with any number of examples of programs (Cornish and Clarke 2003 ). Part of Martha Smith and Ron Clarke’s essay is devoted to an overview of the current classification scheme, as well as the theoretical and practical developments that led to its present form.

The theoretical origins of situational crime prevention are wide-ranging (see Newman, Clarke, and Shoham 1997 ; Garland 2000 ), but it is largely informed by opportunity theory. This theory holds that the offender is “heavily influenced by environmental inducements and opportunities and as being highly adaptable to changes in the situation” (Clarke 1995 a , p. 57). Opportunity theory is made up of several more specific theories, including the rational-choice perspective, the routine-activity approach, and crime-pattern theory. According to Smith and Clarke, these three theories have had the greatest influence on the research and practice of situational crime prevention, and they are described in detail in their essay.

Also important to the theoretical basis and the practical utility of situational prevention is the widely held finding that crime is not randomly distributed across a city or community but is, instead, highly concentrated at certain places known as crime “hot spots” (Sherman, Gartin, and Buerger 1989 ). For example, it is estimated that across the United States, 10 percent of the places are sites for around 60 percent of the crimes (Eck 2006 , p. 242). In the same way that individuals can have criminal careers, there are criminal careers for places (Sherman 1995 ). The essay by Anthony Braga reviews the empirical and theoretical evidence on the concentration of crime at places, times, and among offenders.

Fairly or unfairly, situational crime prevention often raises concerns over the displacement of crime. This is the notion that offenders simply move around the corner or resort to different methods to commit crimes once a crime-prevention project has been introduced. 4 Thirty years ago, Thomas Reppetto ( 1976 ) identified five different forms of displacement: temporal (change in time), tactical (change in method), target (change in victim), territorial (change in place), and functional (change in type of crime).

What Clarke ( 1995b ) and many others (e.g., Gabor 1990 ; Hesseling 1995 ) have found and rightly note is that displacement is never 100 percent. Furthermore, a growing body of research has shown that situational measures may instead result in a diffusion of crime-prevention benefits or the “complete reverse” of displacement (Clarke and Weisburd 1994 ). Instead of a crime-prevention project displacing crime, the project’s crime-prevention benefits are diffused to the surrounding area, for example. The essay by Shane Johnson, Rob Guerette, and Kate Bowers, which reports on a meta-analysis of displacement and diffusion, provides confirmatory evidence for these general points. They also find that a “diffusion of benefit is at least as likely as crime displacement.”

Like the other crime-prevention strategies, numerous reviews have been carried out over the years to assess the effectiveness of situational crime-prevention programs. By far the most comprehensive reviews have been conducted by John Eck ( 1997 , 2006 ). They focused on the full range of place-based situational measures implemented in both public and private settings. In keeping with their evidence-based approach, the reviews included only the highest quality evaluations in arriving at conclusions about what works, what does not work, and what is promising. This had the effect of excluding many situational measures with demonstrated preventive effects—including steering-column locks, redesigned credit cards, and exact-change policies (see Clarke 1997 ). Some of these first-generation situational prevention measures were assessed in weak evaluations that could not convincingly support the assertion that the program produced the reported effect.

John Eck and Rob Guerette’s esssay presents an updated and slightly modified review of place-based crime prevention. They assess the evidence for the effectiveness of various situational measures implemented in five common types of places: residences, outside/public, retail, transportation, and recreation. They find a range of situational measures that are effective in preventing different crimes in each of these settings.

Two other essays review the effectiveness of situational measures applied in other contexts. Paul Ekblom looks at the role of the private sector in designing products that work against crime. A number of successful programs are profiled and critical issues discussed in what the author calls the “arms race” between preventers and offenders. Louise Grove and Graham Farrell review the effectiveness of situational measures designed to prevent repeat victimization of residential and commercial burglary and domestic and sexual violence. The authors find that a number of different measures are effective in preventing repeat victimization, especially of residential and commercial burglary.

V. Advancing Knowledge and Building a Safer Society

The final section of this volume looks at a number of key issues that cut across the three crime-prevention strategies. The first of these concerns implementation. Ross Homel and Peter Homel cover the complexities and challenges of implementing crime-prevention programs, as well as the process of moving from small-scale projects to large-scale dissemination and how to mitigate the attenuation of program effects. As with the science of the effectiveness of crime prevention, the authors call for a science of implementation that conforms with principles of good governance.

The second of these key issues concerns evaluation. An evaluation of a crime-prevention program is considered to be rigorous if it possesses a high degree of internal, construct, and statistical conclusion validity 5 (Cook and Campbell 1979 ; Shadish, Cook, and Campbell 2002 ). Put another way, we can have a great deal of confidence in the observed effects of an intervention if it has been evaluated using a design that controls for the major threats to these forms of validity. Experimental and quasi-experimental research methods are the types of designs that can best achieve this, and the randomized controlled experiment is the most convincing method of evaluating crime-prevention programs. This is the subject of David Weisburd and Joshua Hinkle’s essay. Among the many benefits of randomized experiments, the authors note that randomization is the only method of assignment that controls for unknown and unmeasured confounders, as well as those that are known and measured. They also note that the randomized experiment is no panacea and may not be feasible in every instance, and in these cases other high-quality evaluation designs should be employed.

The next essay by Doris MacKenzie, on the effectiveness of correctional treatment, represents a departure from our focus on alternative, non–criminal justice approaches to preventing crime. Its inclusion in this volume is meant to be an important reminder of a key policy conclusion in our field: it is never too early and never too late to effectively intervene to reduce criminal offending (Loeber and Farrington 1998 , forthcoming). While we maintain that it is far more socially worthwhile and just as well as sustainable to intervene before harm is inflicted on a victim and the offender is under the supervision of the justice system, it is important to recognize that this is not always possible; prevention programs are by no means foolproof.

Public opinion on crime prevention is also important to its future development and practice. Encouragingly, there appears to be a great deal of public support for the kinds of crime prevention covered here. Traditional and economic-based opinion polls consistently show that the public supports government spending on crime prevention rather than on more punitive responses, including building more prisons (Cullen et al. 2007 ), and that the public is willing to pay more in taxes if people know that the money will be directed toward crime prevention rather than crime control (Cohen, Rust, and Steen 2006 ; Nagin et al. 2006 ). These and other important findings are at the center of Julian Roberts and Ross Hastings’s review of international trends in public opinion concerning crime prevention.

In the final essay of the volume we set out our modest proposal for a new crime-prevention policy to help build a safer, more sustainable society. Among its central features are the need to overcome the “short-termism” politics of the day; to ensure that the highest quality scientific research is at center stage in political and policy decisions; and to strike a greater balance between crime prevention and crime control.

Crime-prevention programs are not designed with the intention of excluding justice personnel. Many types of prevention programs, especially those that focus on adolescents, involve justice personnel such as police or probation officers. In these cases, justice personnel work in close collaboration with those from such areas as education, health care, recreation, and social services.

Among the most well known classification schemes include those by Brantingham and Faust ( 1976 ), van Dijk and de Waard ( 1991 ), and Ekblom ( 1994 ).

Promising programs are those where the level of certainty from the available scientific evidence is too low to support generalizable conclusions, but where there is some empirical basis for predicting that further research could support such conclusions (Farrington et al. 2006 ).

See Barr and Pease ( 1990 ) for a discussion of “benign” or desirable effects of displacement.

Internal validity refers to how well the study unambiguously demonstrates that an intervention had an effect on an outcome. Construct validity refers to the adequacy of the operational definition and measurement of the theoretical constructs that underlie the intervention and the outcome. Statistical conclusion validity is concerned with whether the presumed cause (the intervention) and the presumed effect (the outcome) are related.

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The New Policing, Crime Control, and Harm Reduction

by Anthony A. Braga | July 2017

The “new policing,” as described by Professor Fagan, captures a concerning element of the slow drift of the police profession away from community problem-solving models of policing popularized during the 1980s and 1990s and towards more aggressive enforcement strategies over the last two decades. It is important to note here that the so-called new policing also has desirable elements that better position police departments to enhance public safety and security. The police should embrace an analytical approach to understanding crime patterns and trends. Crime is highly concentrated in small high-risk places, and committed by and against a small number of people who are at high-risk of being the victim of a crime or party to it (Braga, 2012). Police managers should also be held accountable for their performance in detecting and addressing these identifiable risks.

The new policing model unfortunately emphasizes increased law enforcement action over more nuanced prevention strategies that engage the community. One-dimensional and overly-broad police surveillance and enforcement strategies do little to change the underlying dynamics that drive serious urban violence and have generally not been found to be effective in controlling crime (e.g., see Braga et al., 2015). Indiscriminate police enforcement actions also contribute to mass incarceration problems that harm disadvantaged neighborhoods (Young and Petersilia, 2016). This is particularly true when such an approach is coupled with a “crime numbers game” managerial mindset that promotes yearly increases in arrest, summons, and investigatory stop actions as key performance measures (Eterno and Silverman, 2012). Indeed, Professor Fagan makes a strong case that aggressive enforcement strategies in the new policing may heighten racial and economic disparities and possibly reinforce segregation.

Fagan’s essay, however, does not focus on the kinds of crime control strategies that police executives could pursue in the new policing model that would help reduce harmful consequences on poor and disadvantaged neighborhoods. As suggested by former President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2015), police strategies that unintentionally violate civil rights, compromise police legitimacy, or undermine trust are counterproductive. This is precisely why they recommended that law enforcement agencies develop and adopt policies and strategies that reinforce the importance of community engagement in managing public safety. While community policing programs have not been found to be effective in reducing crime, they have been found to generate positive effects on citizen satisfaction, perceptions of disorder, and police legitimacy (Gill et al., 2014). Moreover, community engagement strategies implemented as part of community policing programs can provide important input to help focus problem-oriented policing, hot spots policing, and focused deterrence approaches, which do seem to reduce crime (Weisburd et al., 2010; Braga et al., 2014; Braga and Weisburd, 2012).

Developing close relationships with community members helps the police gather information about crime and disorder problems, understand the nature of these problems, and solve specific crimes. Community members can also help police prevent crime by contributing to improvements to the physical environment and through informal social control of high-risk people. In this way, police strategies focusing on high-risk people and high-risk places would cease to be a form of profiling and become a generator of community engagement projects (Braga, 2016). Indeed, a central idea in community policing is to engage residents so they can exert more control over dynamics that contribute to their own potential for victimization and, by doing so, influence neighborhood levels of crime (Skogan and Hartnett, 1997). Preventing crime by addressing underlying crime-producing situations reduces harm to potential victims as well as harm to would-be offenders by not relying solely on arrest and prosecution actions.

Community engagement in developing appropriately focused strategies would help to safeguard against indiscriminate and overly aggressive enforcement tactics and other inappropriate policing activities, which in turn erode the community’s trust and confidence in the police and inhibit cooperation. Collaborative partnerships between police and community members improve the transparency of law enforcement actions and provide residents with a much-needed voice in crime prevention work. Ongoing conversations with the community can ensure that day-to-day police-citizen interactions are conducted in a procedurally just manner that enhances community trust and compliance with the law (Tyler, 2006).

Community problem-solving strategies, rather than aggressive enforcement, should be the last prong of the new policing model. In the context of racial and economic segregation, the positive impacts of such a policy change could be profound. Reduced mobility driven by fears of undue police attention, financial burdens imposed by fines and other criminal justice system costs, employment and education limitations associated with criminal records, and other negative externalities experienced by residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods would diminish. Effective police-community partnerships could improve the connection of local residents with a range of government and non-profit resources that promote public safety by improving neighborhood conditions. Safer neighborhoods are more attractive to private businesses who can provide jobs and much needed goods and services to local residents. In this way, police departments could be key initiators of longer-lasting social and economic changes that undo the harms associated with racial and economic segregation.

The ideals of community policing have been around for a long time. Unfortunately, many police departments do not seem to be embracing these approaches with fidelity to the original principles (National Research Council, 2004). It is perhaps not surprising that even though community policing has been widely adopted, at least in principle, substantial conflict between police and the communities they serve continues to occur. It is high time that police departments reinvest in implementing community policing with a much more meaningful commitment to problem-solving and prevention-oriented approaches that emphasize the role of the public in helping set police priorities. By doing so, “new policing” strategies can be oriented towards reducing harm while controlling crime.

Braga, Anthony A. 2012. “High Crime Places, Times, and Offenders.” In The Oxford Handbook on Crime Prevention , edited by Brandon C. Welsh and David P. Farrington. New York: Oxford University Press.

Braga, Anthony A. 2016. “Better Policing Can Improve Legitimacy and Reduce Mass Incarceration.” Harvard Law Review Forum , 129 (7): 233 – 241.

Braga, Anthony A., Andrew V. Papachristos, and David M. Hureau. 2014. “The Effects of Hot Spots Policing on Crime: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Justice Quarterly , 31 (4): 633 – 663.

Braga, Anthony A. and David L. Weisburd. 2012. “The Effects of Focused Deterrence Strategies on Crime: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Evidence.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency , 49 (3): 323 – 358.

Braga, Anthony A., Brandon C. Welsh, and Cory Schnell. 2015. “Can Policing Disorder Reduce Crime? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency , 52 (4): 567 – 588.

Eterno, John and Eli Silverman. 2012. The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation . New York: CRC Press.

Gill, Charlotte, David L. Weisburd, Cody Telep, Zoe Vitter and Trevor Bennett. 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): 399–428.

National Research Council. 2004. Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence. Committee to Review Research on Police Policy Practices . Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015. Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Skogan, Wesley and Susan Hartnett. 1997. Community Policing , Chicago Style. New York: Oxford University Press.

Tyler, Tom R. 2006. Why People Obey the Law: Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and Compliance (rev. ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Weisburd, David L., Cody Telep, Joshua Hinkle, and John Eck. 2010. “Is Problem Oriented Policing Effective in Reducing Crime and Disorder?” Criminology & Public Policy , 9 (1): 139–172.

Young, Kathryne M. and Joan Petersilia. 2016. “Keeping Track: Surveillance, Control, and the Expansion of the Carceral State.” Harvard Law Review , 129 (7): 1318 – 1360.

Anthony A. Braga is Distinguished Professor and Director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities. 

More in Discussion 24: Policing and Segregation

Policing and Segregation

by Jeffrey A. Fagan

The Dynamics of Policing and Segregation by Race and Class

by Monica Bell

The New Policing, Crime Control, and Harm Reduction

by Anthony A. Braga

High Volume Stops and Violence Prevention

by Philip J. Cook

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What is community violence intervention.

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Community violence generally happens outside the home in public spaces. Most community violence involves a relatively small number of people as victims or perpetrators. Still, its effects impact entire communities, eroding public health, causing economic disruption, and contributing to lasting individual and community traumas. Mitigation efforts typically focus on high-risk individuals, gun violence, specific violent crime problems, as well as the historical and structural challenges that often result in community violence.

Community violence intervention (CVI) is an approach that uses evidence-informed strategies to reduce violence through tailored community-centered initiatives. These multidisciplinary strategies engage individuals and groups to prevent and disrupt cycles of violence and retaliation, and establish relationships between individuals and community assets to deliver services that save lives, address trauma, provide opportunity, and improve the physical, social, and economic conditions that drive violence.

Guiding Principles

Community centered.

The CVI approach must be informed by and tailored to community residents and stakeholders, and everyone involved must prioritize the community's needs. This means social service partners are engaged to align and collaborate with residents and law enforcement partners to reduce violence and build community.

Evidence Informed

Each CVI strategy should be built using evidence generated by multiple disciplines and a variety of methods. Evidence used to support a CVI program may include findings from research and evaluation, case studies, expert opinions, or documented lessons learned from the field. Ideally, a CVI program will engage in research and evaluation to help build the evidence base for what works.

Equitable and Inclusive

Care must be taken to guarantee the community members most affected and most disenfranchised are included in creating CVI solutions and benefiting from them.

Effective and Sustainable

 CVI programs must demonstrate measurable impacts on violence and community wellbeing, and they must have access to resources that enable responses to new and ongoing challenges over time.

OJP Support

In FY2022, the Department of Justice launched the Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) , a historic federal investment in community violence Intervention programs. This initiative seeks to prevent and reduce violent crime in communities by supporting comprehensive, evidence-based violence intervention and prevention programs based on partnerships among community residents, local government agencies, victim service providers, community-based organizations, law enforcement, hospitals, researchers, and other community stakeholders.  

These historic investments in community violence intervention strategies support community infrastructure and expand the role of community partners as a complement to law enforcement.  — Amy Solomon, Assistant Attorney General

The Office of Justice Programs and several of its program offices—the Bureau of Justice Assistance , National Institute of Justice , Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention , and Office for Victims of Crime —are taking a collaborative approach to help ensure jurisdictions have access to expertise and resources to address community violence.

OJP Funding

In FY 2022 and FY 2023, OJP awarded nearly $200 million in CVIPI grants, which are funded in part through dedicated resources from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Current Funding

Fy24 office of justice programs community based violence intervention and prevention initiative site-based, community-based violence intervention and prevention initiative (cvipi) research and evaluation.

 Awards to Community Based Organizations

Awards to local governments, awards to state governments, awards for research & evaluation,  awards to capacity building intermediaries, awards to training & technical assistance providers, past funding opportunities,  bureau of justice assistance.

FY 2023 Office of Justice Programs Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative

• Grants.gov deadline: May 18, 2023, 8:59 p.m. ET
• JustGrants deadline: May 25, 2023, 8:59 p.m. ET

FY 2022 Office of Justice Programs Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative

• Grants.gov deadline: June 16, 2022, 8:59 p.m. ET
• JustGrants deadline: June 21, 2022, 8:59 p.m. ET

 National Institute of Justice

NIJ FY23 Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) Research, Evaluation, and Associated Training & Technical Assistance Support

• Grants.gov deadline: May 22, 2023, 11:59 p.m. ET
• JustGrants deadline: June 5, 2023, 8:59 p.m. ET

FY 2022 Evaluation of OJP Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) Projects

• Grants.gov deadline: June 7, 2022, 11:59 p.m. ET

View all NIJ CVIPI projects  

OJP Resources

Visit the National CVIPI Resource Center to request training and technical assistance from CVI experts.

Subscribe to learn more about this and other OJP efforts.

Listen to the Community Violence Intervention podcast.

A step-by-step checklist for community led and evidence informed strategies.

Definitions of terms associated with community violence intervention

Explore the extensive community based violence intervention and prevention catalog from communities stories, fact sheets, webinars, and more.

Technology for Crime Prevention

Since 1990, criminal justice system has received a lot of development regarding advancement in law enforcement technology. Several studies have shown that the development will impact crime prevention in future as well as improve law enforcement in response to crime. With the modern computer technology and advanced software, criminal justice system has been in a capacity to compile data and store it as well as share its analysis with other agencies both in and out of concerned parties in government. Investigation techniques have been made cost effective and the process of prosecution is now fast as there is always easily accessible evidence such as video tapes covered by surveillance cameras.

Advancement on Law Enforcement Technology Since 1990

According to (Carter, 2003), advancement on law enforcement technology since1990 has developed at a very high rate especially regarding the use of computers as well as telecommunication and this has impacted effectively on crime prevention. Data transmissions and graphic interfaces have now become friendly to the law enforcement agencies and more data can be collected and stored as well as be analyzed. Different agencies dealing with criminal justice can now share data in government and even among agencies outside government. However, research has shown that, if there is no efficient integration of this advancement of information technology, some of its aspect may face resistance among staff especially when there is perception of unfair intrusion or any other technical difficulty.

(Carter, 2003) found that, the major imperatives that have lead to the government investing so much in information technology include the need to effectively as well as efficiently enlarge the capacity in storage and processing of data. This is aimed at enhancing intelligence and techniques in investigation where the enforcers can easily access the records involving crime. The law enforcers have also faced high demand in data sharing with other agencies and businesses including insurance companies. Advancement in technology has also been aimed at improving police management as well as their accountability regarding probity. Technology has made the cost of crime investigation to be effective as a result of following regular procedures. Various techniques have been designed to give warning in good time for the police using force complaints. With the recent technology, police are scrutinized through internal management systems of surveillance and watchdog agencies. Therefore, enforcement technology is aimed at policing both citizens as well as police so as to make them improve their service especially in crime mapping as well as information integration. An example of application of technology since1990 has been computer crime mapping which has been used as a tool by agencies of law enforcement. Geographical information system has been merged with mapping software and used with desktop computers in analysis of crime. Research indicates that, this technology is affordable even for police departments that operate on a constrained budget. (Crank, 2006)

How the technology will improve law enforcement’s response to crime

Argues that, advancement in information technology will enable any information of privacy concerns to be stored and if required to be shared electronically across all agencies in criminal justice. This will benefit law enforcement and police in prosecution department as well as defenders in both private and public defense bar. Today, this objective has already began to be realized. However, an efficient information system using this technology must be well coordinated and planned among the concerned agencies to avoid occurrence of technological inconsistencies. With proper planning, the police are able to work closely with the members of the community towards reducing crime as well as creating a safer community. The technology will minimize human administrative roles while at the same time increasing efficiency in management as well as accountability of all officers. In future, city agencies will easily identify and provide solutions to neighborhood problems instead of reacting to a crime long after it has been committed. The goal will easily be achieved through extensive training in order to help the citizen as well as police master kills in the use of services impacting crime as well as techniques in targeting hot spots for criminal activities.

Carter A. (2003): Evolution of Higher Education in Law Enforcement: Journal of Criminal Justice Education pp 34-39.

Crank R. (2006): technological Perspective on Policing: Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology pp 24-33.

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IvyPanda. (2021, October 7). Technology for Crime Prevention. https://ivypanda.com/essays/technology-for-crime-prevention/

"Technology for Crime Prevention." IvyPanda , 7 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/technology-for-crime-prevention/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Technology for Crime Prevention'. 7 October.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Technology for Crime Prevention." October 7, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/technology-for-crime-prevention/.

1. IvyPanda . "Technology for Crime Prevention." October 7, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/technology-for-crime-prevention/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Technology for Crime Prevention." October 7, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/technology-for-crime-prevention/.