International exchange on urban renewal and crime prevention 

ICPC’s Third Annual Colloquium took place in Pretoria, South Africa on 24^th November 2003 on Cities, Urban Renewal and Crime Prevention. It was very generously hosted by Commissioner Wilson Makhubela of the South African Police Service (SAPS), who represented the South African government, and by the Crime Prevention Center of CSIR,  a member of ICPC’s Board of Directors. Presidents Myriam Ezratty and Yves Van de Vloet opened the proceedings. Around 100 people took part. This edition of the International Observer provides a summary of the proceedings and conclusions, and texts or presentations by the main speakers.

 

The Colloquium topic was city-focused, and looked at the links between current work on urban renewal and crime prevention, and at such key issues as comprehensive interventions, decentralization, increasing the powers of local governments and the links between urban and transnational crime. 

Work on the role of the city in crime prevention is central to the approach to community safety advocated by ICPC. Cities have been key to crime prevention policies in most member countries and international organizations in recent years, with the focus on coordinating and developing multi-sector strategic responses to crime. At the same time in many countries other policy areas such as health, poverty, housing and environment have made similar attempts to work horizontally across multiple-sectors. This includes the kinds of work undertaken under various headings including urban renewal, neighbourhood renewal, and comprehensive community initiatives. While not all of this work has embraced crime and community safety among its targets, there are a number of on-going initiatives which do, and the Colloquium focused on what can be learned about practice and approaches, problems and solutions in these linked fields.