Social and community crime prevention

Focus

• Potential offender and their social context

Aim of social and community crime prevention

• Remove conditions that predispose people to crime

  • I.e. it’s long-term and it tackles the root causes

Side effect of social and community crime prevention

• Preventative of crime

Example of social and community crime prevention

• Perry preschool project

Group PPP was aimed at

• Disadvantaged Black children in Michigan

PPP — 2 aspects

• 2 year 3h/day intellectual enrichment programme with MA teachers

• Weekly home visits

PPP — longitudinal study

• Found that by the age of 40, Perry children (compared to a control group) had:

  • 50% fewer arrests

  • Higher high school graduation rates

  • Higher employment rates

For every $ spent on the PPP, $x were saved on welfare/prison etc.

$16

% of PPP cost regained per year over child’s lifetime

7-10%

2 CRITICISMS of crime prevention programmes

1. Disregard crimes of powerful and environmental crimes

2. Reflect priorities of crime prevention agencies

Whyte — environmental crime v W/C crime in N.W. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• Police focused most on vehicle and property crime but there were 98 prosecutions from the Environment Agency in the same period

• Two plants in the NW release about 40% of all factory-produced cancer-causing chemicals in 🇬🇧 each year

• Shows that focus should be on such activities as well because they have effects on local communities