Prevention of crime in local communities - between ad hoc approaches and knowledge-based prevention activities

Abstract

The paper addresses the prevention of crime at the local level and stresses the importance and necessity of using a knowledge-based approach in the prevention of crime. This paper presents problems due to ad hoc approaches to the prevention of crime. Current (local) policy and practice regarding the prevention of crime have many pitfalls; therefore, the authors propose that a knowledge-based approach be used in the prevention of criminality, since most ad hoc interventions are based on untested ideas, rather than research that would clearly show which approaches produce the desired effects and are also cost-efficient. Preventive activities are only rarely devised by scientists or specialists in the field of criminality prevention; these activities are usually devised and implemented by state officials and employees in local administrative bodies, who prepare them on the basis of their own assumptions as to what the causes of criminality are and what measures should be taken to influence them. The paper suggests that the introduction of a paradigm highlighting knowledge- and research-based prevention of crime at the local level should be considered.