This paper aims to describe the impact of the media on crime prevention by providing an integrative approach for exploring the multiple roles of the media. National and independent studies continue to maintain that the media holds an important position for communication, and information sharing and dissemination in society: “people rely on images of trends and prevalence made available by the experts and official sources” (Sacco 2000, p.208). However, due to the complexity and multi-dimensional framework, which encloses the impact of the media, its interactions and links, these roles remain largely undefined. Therefore, the impact is more complex than a causal link or simply media conforming to dominant news values. In the end, through an inclusive, interactive and democratic relationship with a variety of media sources, there is space for positive results in terms of crime prevention, and thus for preventing media misuse, misconceptions and stigmatization, and for promoting successful strategies and policies.

The implementation and use of video surveillance (Closed Circuit Television technology) in societies across the globe has stimulated major debate on a handful of topics. This report aims to surface and synthesize those issues through an investigative and comparative analysis. The report will provide the reader with a variety of discussions, based on an objective analysis of available publications throughout the world. It addresses the history of CCTV and the main debates surrounding effectiveness and utility, it further evaluates the concept of the rise of surveillance societies and the protection of individual rights, and promotes further discussion and analysis through policy recommendations.

The Compendium of practices and policies on Women's Safety includes 69 examples from 32 countries. It is divided into four main sections: municipal strategies, non-government initiatives, national government strategies and policies, and tools and resources.

This present study :
- examine the situation in a dozen countries from the different regions of sub-Saharan Africa;
- describe the main characteristics of the general organization of the police in the country: administrative, judicial and prevention police services, as well as intelligence agencies, at the different territorial levels;
- describe the objectives and missions assigned to the different police organizations in the country, emphasizing those with links to the crime prevention;
- specify the relations and interactions between the inhabitants and the municipal police and their respective role in the determination and implementation of the prevention actions (citizen participation, surveillance);
- outline the contemporary problems faced by the police services and what they are likely to face in future;
- identify and specify the stakes related to the actions of these different services in prevention: resistance, development perspectives, quality of partnerships, etc …

The first International Report on Crime Prevention and Community Safety: Trends and Perspectives offers decision-makers, practitioners, civil society members and researchers a comprehensive analysis of the situation of crime prevention and community safety in the world.

The Compendium of Crime Prevention Practices to Inspire Action Across the World contains crime prevention and community safety practices gleaned from North America, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Central and Latin America, Oceania and South Asia.

Proceedings of the Workshop held at the 11th Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Bangkok, Thailand, April 18th-25th, 2005.

This paper aims to summarize some key global trends and developments with a focus on Indigenous populations, highlight some recent examples of Indigenous communities in action towards crime prevention, including some of the challenges of implementing effective prevention, and present some key learnings from the field to inform future action.

This report summarises recent developments in strategies and practices around the world concerning women and girls’ safety, including the prevention of violence against women.  The report is intended for a wide audience, including policy makers, crime prevention
practitioners, women's groups and academics, and is divided into five parts.  The first section provides a general overview of the field, while the second section introduces changing definitions in the field- from domestic violence and family violence to a more comprehensive term- women's safety, and describes some recent developments in prevention policies internationally. Section three summarises some of the recent initiatives taking place internationally relating to women’s safety and the prevention of gender-based violence, and section four reviews some of the innovative strategies and tools being used to promote women’s safety.  Finally, the last section provides some examples of promising practices including model surveys and safety audits, comprehensive integrated programmes, programmes including men and boys, a rural partnership programme, and media campaigns.

Responding to the interest of our Member governments, ICPC recently undertook a preliminary review of police-school co-operation programmes which are becoming more widespread. Police involvement in schools is not a new phenomenon. They have been associated with schools in many countries in a number of ways for most of the past century. Since the 1960’s there have been gradual changes, resulting by the 1990’s in the development of a variety of much more formalized and closer links between local police and schools.  These initiatives are often more structured and focused, target ‘at risk’ populations or schools, and the range of tools and training materials is expanding. Part of the expansion of police-school interventions is in response to increased concerns about school-based bullying and violence, intrusion and drug use, to the increasing use of zero tolerance policies in some countries since the 1990’s, and to a climate of increased insecurity and risk aversion.

Three models of involvement are identified although there is considerable overlap: school-based police officer programmes, police as ‘educators’, and comprehensive or broad-based liaison programmes.
Police-school programmes represent a range of unstructured and structured programmes with varying combinations of pro-active and reactive approaches, and prevention, intervention, enforcement and deterrent objectives, and short and long-term goals. They include bi-lateral initiatives, which work exclusively with schools, and multi-lateral initiatives in which the police are one of a wider range of partners.

Many initiatives see themselves as part of a community policing approach, which is primarily pro-active and preventive. Such programmes can help to create better attitudes and relationships between young people and police working in schools, which can be seen as an important prevention strategy in itself. However, these attitudes may not always be transferred to other police.

This brief report provides a preliminary overview of a some of these practices and programmes involving police and schools in a number of countries. It is far from complete. 
 

Background paper for ICPC's 10th Anniversary Colloquium on Crime Prevention, December 1-2, 2004, Paris, France.

In many countries around the world, Indigenous communities are especially vulnerable to victimization and criminalization, often as a result of colonial policies and exploitation. The challenges of developing sustainable prevention programmes which support those living in remote or rural regions, or responding in long-term ways to the needs of those who have migrated to urban areas are enormous.

In July 2003, ICPC released its comparative review of policy and practice in four countries with similar histories of colonization - Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA, entitled: Crime Prevention and Indigenous Communities: Current International Strategies and Programmes.

There is a significant body of research about the role the media plays in influencing public perceptions about crime. The public depends largely on newspapers and television for its information about crime and the criminal justice system, but the information they receive is often affected by the limited sources used by journalists to create news stories. Sensationalist reporting of violent crime by the media often helps to increase feelings of insecurity among citizens, and in turn, affects their overall quality of life.

There have been many attempts to increase media literacy among audiences, to monitor media content, and change the nature of crime stories produced. Public service announcements, and public education and awareness campaigns are some of the traditional approaches used by governments, another approach has been 'civic journalism'. While these approaches are still very important in crime prevention, they represent only a part of the media's potential contribution. Trends in information and communications technology (ICT) offer community safety and crime prevention much more beyond publicity, promotional activities, or surveillance measures (eg. CCTV). Given that many governments and NGOs are investing in ICTs to develop international networks, and construct a knowledge base in crime prevention (policy, best practices, tools, training, etc), what measures can be taken to ensure that those who do not have access to ICTs contribute to and benefit from this exchange?

The attached short reflection piece discusses some of these trends, and argues for a stronger role for communication in crime prevention and community safety policy and practice, including in particular the emerging field of communication for social change. Comments and responses are welcomed.

In this paper, ICPC takes a closer look at the phenomenon of “Comprehensive Community Initiatives (CCI)”, drawing heavily on the use of CCI's in the USA. As will be seen, these initiatives are based on action principles similar to those of community-level integrated prevention. What makes them interesting is that over the years, a developing evaluation practice has begun to emerge, that diverges from the traditional method, but holds some promise, and is more in line with the underlying philosophy of community interventions. 

The paper provides an overview of CCI’s and looks at evaluation practice, debating the limitations of traditional evaluation approaches and presenting case studies. It also highlights examples that are relevant to an evaluation practice in crime prevention.

This discussion paper examines the evolution and practice of evaluating prevention in various countries and some of the challenging questions raised such as: Why do we evaluate? How do we ensure that evaluation results translate into or inform policy or program decisions? This paper demonstrates that despite important reports published in recent years synthesizing the knowledge base on prevention, evaluation findings are rarely translated into public policy decisions. Some of the reasons for this gap relate to methodological issues, others to timing, and yet others to practical understanding. Furthermore, evaluation issues become increasingly complex when approached from an international perspective.

This is a discussion document that must be seen as such: posing certain questions and identifying certain challenges without pretending to be exhaustive. The ICPC is continuing its work on evaluation and welcomes comments on this first draft of a work-in-progress.

Over the past few years there have been increasing calls around the world for crime prevention strategies and action to give much greater attention to gender - to the ways in which women's and men's experience of crime, and their prevention needs differ. Since the 1980's many international conferences, declarations and protocols have called on governments to increase their support for gender equality. Much of the international initiative has been in reaction to the situation of women in developing countries, and the crucial role that women can play in achieving sustainable development.

While the significance of gender differences has been recognized in fields such as health, medicine and education, there has been less action in the field of crime prevention.
To a large extent prevention policies relating to women remain separated from overall policies. There are also differences between countries and regions in understanding about what gender means or includes, and about how best to integrate it into good prevention practice. The arguments for paying greater attention to gender differences relate both to the promotion of good governance and democratic policy-making, as well as to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of crime prevention strategies and practice for both women and girls and men and boys.

The attached discussion paper looks at some of the difficulties, trends and developments in the integration of gender into crime prevention. Comments and responses are welcomed.

Hate crimes have received much publicity in recent years, shocking local communities and gaining widespread national attention in many countries. However the most extreme and tragic cases publicized only represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of the extent of hate-motivated behaviour and intolerance in most countries, much of which is undetected and unreported.

Hate crime is becoming recognized as a global issue and countries have begun to react with corresponding initiatives. Governments have begun developing legislation, more systematic data collection, and in some cases national policies and tools to understand, measure, and prevent the occurrence and growth of hate and bias crimes.

This monograph brings together information on strategies for preventing hate and bias crimes, ingredients for effective prevention, and promising programs being used in different countries. It is written for policy-makers and leaders in professional and community organizations who are in a position to stimulate preventive action and initiatives.

Many governments have responded to increasing problems of community safety by toughening their legal and justice systems and increasing policing and penalties. However, mayors and municipal leaders have also taken strong leadership roles in mobilizing local partnerships for more integrated and sustainable crime prevention approaches.

This monograph looks at the role of elected officials in fostering community safety. It outlines why change is necessary and how knowledge about crime, insecurity, and effective prevention has been used by local governments to build healthier and safer communities. It highlights international trends and developments and gives some examples of strategies, tools, and good practice from around the world. 

This monograph was produced by the ICPC with financial support of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, US Department of Justice. It can be viewed on the US Department of Justice.s National Criminal Justice Reference Service web site. It has since been translated in French with financial support from Canada.s National Strategy on Crime Prevention.

This monograph presents comprehensive information on school safety problems and trends, international developments, policies and programs, and the critical elements of comprehensive school safety strategies. It has been written for school principals, superintendents, administrators, boards of governors, school-parent bodies, and others concerned with school safety issues who are in positions where their leadership can really make a difference.

This monograph discusses the range of approaches to school safety that are being developed and adapted in different countries around the world. Examples of current school safety projects using multiple methods and partnerships are drawn from South Africa, France, England, Wales, Germany, Sweden, the United States, and Canada. References and resources are listed.

Strategies described in this monograph not only address aggressive or violent incidents but health-related issues as well. They use a community-based approach to promote school safety. Many countries are using comprehensive, whole-school projects that involve and consider the roles and needs of individual pupils, teachers, support staff, administrators, school operations, families, and the larger community around the school.

This monograph was produced by the ICPC with financial support of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, US Department of Justice. It can be viewed on the US Department of Justice.s National Criminal Justice Reference Service web site. It has since been translated with financial support from Canada.s National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention and can be viewed on the National Crime Prevention Centre's web site.

Children and young people make up a major sector of a country.s population. Many countries are thinking differently about policies and strategies to prevent crime and victimization among youth people aged 12-18. They now recognize that there are strong links between the health and development of young people and offending and victimization.

It is also now recognized that major social and economic changes have affected the lives of young people over the past 20 years and that future trends indicate continued changes. These factors underline the importance of investing in preventive approaches and supporting young people and their families rather than excluding them.

This monograph has been written for those involved in developing strategies and programs for young people: both policy makers at the federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal level and practitioners in the government and voluntary sector. It looks at international trends and promising strategies and programs in communities around the world. It points to the long- and short-term benefits of investing in young people and developing programs which help build safer and healthier communities for all citizens. The Annex lists additional project examples and information sources.

This monograph was produced by the ICPC with financial support from Canada's National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention. It can be viewed on the National Crime Prevention Centre's web site.

The Police and the criminal justice system alone cannot effectively prevent crime in general and residential burglaries in particular. This report focuses on the characteristics of residential burglaries and home invasions as well as effective strategies and promising programs which have been implemented world wide to prevent them.

This report is primarily intended for municipal crime prevention organizations and police forces who deal directly with residential burglaries and are required to find solutions to reduce their frequency. It also aims to inform policy and decision makers so that they can be better equipped to develop or support national, provincial, or local strategies which aim to deal with this high volume crime effectively.

This monograph was produced by the ICPC with financial support from Canada.s National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention. It can be viewed on the National Crime Prevention Centre's web site.

This compendium compiles and shares best practices and success stories. It is designed to assist police leaders in putting "what works" to work. More than 35 inspiring practices drawn from different countries illustrate how police services have evolved to integrate prevention efforts into traditional policing services and how, when policing and crime prevention are appropriately integrated, the corresponding reductions in crime, violence, and insecurity can be profound.

This publication was produced following the second of three Policing for Prevention Seminars organized by the ICPC which was held in Birmingham, England in 1999 as part of the ICPCs International Program of Exchange of Expertise on the Role of the Police in Crime Prevention.

This monograph is based on the comparative analysis of successful crime prevention strategies outlined in Crime Prevention Digest II, published by the ICPC in 1999. It examines trends in crime prevention in a number of countries, focuses on the economic returns of investing in prevention, and illustrates the benefits of tackling risk factors by developing targeted preventive strategies and programs.

This monograph was produced with the financial support of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, US Department of Justice. It can be viewed on the US Department of Justice's National Criminal Justice Reference Service web site.

We now have the knowledge and tools to act effectively on the root causes of crime and victimization. Crime Prevention Digest II shows that prevention does work - and is more effective than traditional crime control methods - through comparative analysis of studies conducted in various countries on the root causes of crime and the evaluation of interventions targeting those causes. This Digest examines the key elements of a rigorous process and strategies best capable of sustaining successful preventive interventions. It demonstrates that prevention is both a cost-effective and socially responsible way to reduce the consequences of crime and victimization.

To obtain your full colour copy of the Crime Prevention Digest II, contact: valadec@crime-prevention-intl.org

The gradual evolution of the role of police in community safety and crime prevention motivated the ICPC to become involved in a series of Policing for Prevention seminars which began in 1998. These Seminars were delivered within the framework of the ICPCs International Program of Exchange of Expertise on the Role of the Police in Crime Prevention. There were two main challenges: on one hand, to convince police to engage in delinquency prevention as an integral part of their profession and, on the other hand, to respond to shared challenges by bringing about knowledge- and ability-sharing that respected each partner's individual professional responsibilities and abilities.

This publication was produced following the first of three Policing for Prevention Seminars organized by the ICPC held in Montreal, Canada in November 1998. It examines crime trends and effective police responses to changing social conditions such as crime prevention partnerships and problem-oriented policing.

This book will act as a source of inspiration for all those concerned with reducing delinquency, violence, and insecurity. It is designed to promote action across a broad spectrum of sectors and occupations: health, recreation, social services, schools, housing and urban planners, public transport, police and the judiciary, the business community, and the media. It includes concise, easy to understand descriptions of 100 prevention programs from around the world. It explains how to create successful prevention partnerships with key actors and helps understand how, why, and by whom crime, violence, and insecurity can be tackled in an effective and sustainable manner.

Each programme is presented in a brief, simple description so that everyone, no matter what their field or sector, can glean ideas to apply in their particular area. A broad outline of the action taken for each selected programme is given as well as characteristics that are most likely to promote the successful replication or adaptation of the programme. Examples come from developed and developing countries.

To obtain your copy of 100 Crime Prevention Programs to Inspire Action Across the World, contact: valadec@crime-prevention-intl.org

The ICPCs first Crime Prevention Digest provides a synopsis of what is known about successes, economic benefits, and directions for crime prevention. It is designed for leaders of government, business, cities, and policing in Europe, North America, and other regions of the world who are the decision-makers who can put prevention to work to reduce delinquency, violence, and insecurity.

The Digest focuses on scientific research and evaluations from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England and Wales, France, the Netherlands, and the USA. It aims to inspire the decisions that will provide better safety and security not only in the countries from which the data was taken but in other countries as well, including those that are developing or in transition.

To obtain your color copy of Crime Prevention Digest I,
contact: valadec@crime-prevention-intl.org

ICPC 100 Best Practices as of October 1997:

• What prevents crime
• How to prevent crime
• Support for crime prevention