1

INDEX
Sr. No. Topic Page No.

1. Introduction 3
2. Definiton Of Crime 3-4
3. Crime Prevention And Crime Reduction 4
4. Definition Of Crime Prevention 4
5. Classification Of Crime Prevention 5
6. Levels Of Prevention Strategies 5-6
7. Approaches To Crime Prevention 6-10
8. Models Of Crime Prevention 11-13
9. Bibliography 14








2



Introduction
The paradox of our times is that with advancement and progress, the conflicts and tensions
within societies have increased in direct proportion. Crime prevention improves the quality of
life. Crime prevention is a pattern of attitudes and behaviour directed at reducing the threat of
crime and enhancing the sense of safety and security, to positively influence the quality of
life in our society, and to develop environments where crime cannot flourish. The basic goal
of crime prevention is to provide community leaders, local government officials, private
sector partners, faith-based organisation, and others with information on crime prevention
that will enable them to create safer, more secure, and more vibrant communities. Crime
prevention from a criminal point of view has three elements:-
The desire to commit crime
The ability to commit crime
The opportunity to commit crime
Crime prevention is proactive, rather than reactive. A proactive policing attempt to prevent
the crime from occurring in the first place whereas reactive policing responds to crime after it
has occurred
1
.
Definition of Crime
Crime is an act or omission that violates the law and is punishable upon conviction. It
includes Criminal Code offences against a person or property, drug offences, motor vehicle
offences and other provincial or federal statute offences. Disorderly behaviour such as
aggressive panhandling, public urination and sleeping in the street are not necessarily
criminal acts, but they do affect communities by a gradual erosion of the quality of life. The
Community Crime Prevention Guide can be used to address both crime and disorderly
behaviour.

1
http://www.criminaljusticereform.gov.bc.ca/en/what_you_can_do/crime_prevention/

3

Crime typically occurs when three things happen at the same time and in the same space:
1. A motivated offender is present.
2. A suitable target is available.
3. There is either something or someone present which encourages the crime, or nothing or
no-one to discourage it.
A slightly different way to look at this is to say that crime is about people, places and
situations. Crime prevention and reduction strategies try to work on all these elements.
Crime Prevention and Crime Reduction
Crime prevention is a concept that has been used for a long time. A more recent concept is
"crime reduction." The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, which can be confusing.
What follows are descriptions of how the terms are typically used, and how they are used in
this Guide.
The major difference between crime prevention and crime reduction is one of perspective.
Definition of Crime Prevention
Crime Prevention is defined as any purposeful activity which directly or indirectly reduces
the likelihood that a crime or crimes will occur. By implication the prevention of
victimisation is included. Crime prevention is contentious. The politics of crime prevention is
crucial concern in terms of the means and goals that we adopt in making the world safer and
better place. Accordingly, how we construe crime prevention politics has significant
ramifications for how we ultimately intervene at a practical level.
In its purest form crime prevention looks at a person (usually babies, children and young
teens) who are not involved in criminal activity and asks, "What can we do to make sure they
never come into conflict with the law?"
Crime prevention also looks at places and situations which are not yet troubled by much
criminal activity and asks, "How can we make sure crime never becomes a significant
problem here?" For example, in the early 1980s, a new mining community was being built in
north-eastern British Columbia Tumbler Ridge. The designers of the town followed
4

principles which ensured a good flow of foot traffic through all parts of the town, and an easy
view of areas where crime might occur, thus discouraging criminal activity. Because this was
a brand new town, Tumbler Ridge was a classic example of pure crime prevention.
Classification of Crime Prevention
One of the earlier recent attempts to define crime prevention was that offered by Lejins
(1967) who employed threefold typology, differentiating between the techniques employed in
various crime prevention activities:-
1. Punititve prevention, or deterrence: - it includes criminal laws, law enforcement,
crime stoppers, courts, jails and prisons.
2. Corrective prevention, or the elimination of crimogenic social conditions: - it
includes employment, education, counselling, mentoring, Head start
3. Mechanical prevention, or measures to reduce criminal opportunities: - it includes
neighbourhood watch, community policing, public education, homeland security.
What is important here is that Lejins unlike van Dijk, does not exclude the formal criminal
justice system but begins to broaden the field of inquiry beyond its deterrence effect, which
has been the dominant understanding of crime prevention since the early nineteenth century.
Lejins began tentatively to point towards forms of proactive prevention which were either
concerned with the social conditions or physical oppurtunities. What is more, this early
definition captured (and helped reproduce) the essential problematic the tension between
reducing opportunities through situational measures between reducing opportunities through
situational measures and social modes of intervention
2
.
Levels of Prevention Strategies
A comprehensive approach to prevention must include three levels of strategy: Primary,
Secondary, and Tertiary.
Primary prevention focuses on the social, economic, health, and educational policies that
enhance well-being and pro-social behaviour and that reduce risk factors associated with
criminal behaviour.

2
Harin Sabhapati, Crime and Society, (1
st
ed 2005), at151
5

Secondary prevention involves working with individuals most at risk of committing crime,
and with neighbourhood conditions that are associated with crime and victimization.
Tertiary prevention involves working with offenders, through correctional responses, the
reintegration of offenders into the community, and the prevention of recidivism or the risk of
reoffending.
These approaches have been undertaken with the combined support of law enforcement
personnel, service providers, and residents themselves.


Approaches to Crime Prevention

1. Social and Environmental Prevention
Crime prevention encompasses policies or activities designed to prevent, reduce, or eradicate
criminal behaviour, and to lessen the fear of crime and the impact of crime on victims
(Institute for the Prevention of Crime, 2011).
There are two broad approaches to crime prevention: social and environmental.
PRIMARY PREVENTION
Access to culturally
responsive services
Access to socioeconomic
oppurtunities
Community capacity building
nd development
Development of holistic,
sustainable programs
Responsive policy
development
SECONDARY
PREVENTION
Family-based support
(settlement , tutoring, family,
literacy, parenting, outreach
support, socioeconomic
support
Community-based support
(culturally specific proframs,
access to services, menorship,
community education,
community developmen,
advocacy)
School-based support
(academic and literacy
support, social oppurtunities,
identity development,
mentorship, psychosocial
support, preventive education)
TERTIARY
PREVENTION
Family-based support
(involvement of family
members, family strenghening
support)
Community-based support
(outreach, psychosocial
support, practical support,
employment, community
connection and involvement,
leadership and civic
engagement oppurtunities)
School-based support
(psychosocial, academic and
practical support, educational
oppurtunities)
6

Social prevention deals with socio-economic risk factors that contribute to crime. It focuses
on reduction of the likelihood that individuals or groups will engage in criminal activity
through strengthening informal incentives (e.g., immediate and extended family,
neighbourhood networks, peer groups) and institutionally based incentives (e.g., education,
work, culture and sport) to avoid criminal involvement.
Environmental prevention, on the other hand, is concerned with reducing the opportunities
for offenders to commit crime. It emphasizes law enforcement, correction, and increased
personal and property security
3
.
2. Offender oriented prevention
Primary offender oriented prevention :- in theory all citizens of a society are potential
offenders. In practice large part of the population does indeed offend against criminal rules in
certain phases of their life (e.g. drunken driving, tax evasion). Prevention programs,
subsumed under this heading are, aimed at the strengthening of inhibitions to commit crimes
in all citizens. Such projects seek, for example, to facilitate effective socialisation processes
in the family and the education system. Concrete examples are courses in parental skills and
normative training in primary schools (lessons in good citizenship).
Secondary offender oriented prevention:- secondary offender oriented prevention is based
upon early identification and prediction of problem individuals. Special programs seek to
prevent the development of criminal lifestyles among problem youths through basic
education, job training, employment strategies, survival camps to improve self esteem and
social competence, foster parenting and out of home placement (child protection measure).
Most of these programs try to reintegrate youngsters at risk into mainstream society. In many
countries, some of these programs are targeted at youngsters from ethnic minmarginalised
groups.
Tertiary offender oriented prevention the prevention of recidivism among ex-offenders is the
traditional goal of probation or rehabilitation services across the world. Conventional
programs consist of counselling, psychiatric treatment (including clinics for drug addicts and
alcoholics), job mediation and supervision. In recent years new punishment aimed at
rehabilitation have been introduced which try to avoid the harmful side effects of custodial

3
http://www.saps.gov.za/crime_prevention/community/crimeprevent.pdf
7

sentences (so-called punishment in the community). Innovations in this area are intensive
probation supervision, electronically monitored house arrest, victim-offender mediation,
training courses for drunken drivers, intermediate treatment for juvenile delinquents
(obligatory training in social skills) and community service orders.
3. Victim Oriented Crime Prevention
Primary victim oriented orevention :- In many countries, media campaigns are launched
periodically to inform the public about the most common precautions against crime, such as
the purchase and systematic use of sophisticates locks, not leaving valuables in unguarded
cars, not opening the door for strangers, etc. such campaigns are usually backed up by the
distribution of leaflets and public conferences. Special information campaigns are designed
about conmen for the elderly and about sexual abuse for children. The goal of such
activities is to help the public at large to protect itself better against crime by increasing its
awareness of victimisation risks and its knowledge of simple techniques to avoid crime.
Secondary victim oriented prevention Some groups of the population are, for various
reasons, particularly vulnerable to criminal victimisation. Young women who work late at
night, such as nurses, run high risks of being attacked in the streets. They are sometimes
invited to take a course in self-defense techniques. Other special high-risk group comprises
the inhabitants of high-crime areas. In many cases groups of citizens take the initiative to
improve the safety in their crime-ridden neibourhood by forming neighbourhood watch
programs. The main goal of such programs is the better cooperation with the local police by
alerting the police about suspicious incidents.
Tertiary victim oriented prevention:- In most criminal law system, the victim has a marginal
role in criminal procedure and stands little chance of receiving compensation from the
offender for his/her damages. In recent years, new provisions for crime have been created
both inside and outside the criminal justice system. The most common provisions outside the
system are state compensation schemes, victim assistance or support schemes (offering
emotional support, practical and legal advice), rape crioses, shelter homes for bettered wives,
and self-help groups for victims or family members of the victims of the homicide. The aim
of these groups is to help victims to overcome their emotional and practical problems. Such
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help aims to prevent secondary hardship and suffering as well as further victimization. Such
activities are defined as tertiary forms of prevention.
4. Situational and social prevention
The development of situational approach to crime prevention is very much associated with
work emanating from the Home Office in the early 1980s, which advocated an opportunity
reduction model. Broadly speaking, situational crime prevention involves the management,
design or manipulation of the immediately physical environment so as to reduce the
opportunities for specific crimes. Prevention is to be achieved through measures which alter
the situational or spatial characteristics of the environment in order to make offending harder
or increase the likelihood of detection. It is often referred to as physical crime prevention.
The most obvious form that it takes is target-hardening whereby the opportunities for
attaining the potential object of crime are made harder or less attractive through barriers or
alterations. In some cases this even involve target removal whereby the object is removed
altogether.
Social crime prevention :- social crime prevention is premised on an understanding that crime
is opportunistic and can be controlled through the modification of the physical environment.
Crime Prevention through Social Development
Crime Prevention through Social Development (CPSD) involves long-term, integrated
actions that deal with the root causes of crime. Its aim is to reduce risk factors that start
people, particularly children and youth, on the road to crime, and to build protective factors
that may mitigate those risks. The risk factors associated with criminal involvement are also
related to many other social problems, such as child abuse and neglect, drug and alcohol
misuse, school failure, teenage pregnancy, and unemployment. So when people and
organizations work to prevent crime they are also working to make our communities healthy,
safe and sustainable in many respects.
CPSD works at making people healthy, responsible and resilient. In a free society, there will
always be opportunities and temptations to do wrong to take advantage of another person or a
situation for our own benefit. CPSD promotes community values about non violence and
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respect for other people and their property, and helps young people resist peer pressure and
make good decisions.
CPSD programming can occur at three levels:
1. At the primary level, crime prevention refers to universal, population-based programs
such as public education and healthcare.
2. At the secondary level, crime prevention refers to programs that target those at higher risk
for criminal activity. This level would include programs for youth at risk of leaving
school and parenting programs for high-risk parents.
3. At the tertiary level, crime prevention refers to rehabilitative and supervision programs
for offenders to reduce re-offending
4
.

Primary Secondary Tertiary

Social




Situational



4
Dr. R.N. Tripathi, Crime and criminology, social control and human right ( 6th ed 2011), at
134
Education and
socialisation, public
awareness &
advertising
campaigns
neighbourhood
watch
Work with those at
risk of offending
youth, the
unemployed
community
regeneration
Rehabilitation,
confronting
offending
behaviour, after
care, diversion
reparation





Target-hardening
surveillance,
opportunity
reduction/ removal,
environmental
design, general
deterrence
Target-hardening
and design
measures for at
risk groups, risk
prediction &
assessment
deterrence
Individual
deterrence,
incapacitation,
assessment of
dangerousness and
risk
10


Models of Crime Prevention
Some commentators have sought to make perspectives the defining characteristics of
differences between crime prevention strategies. Iadicola (1986) for instance identifies three
models of crime prevention aimed at communities and neighbourhoods, each emphasizing a
commitment to different political ideologies.
Conservative Model
It focused on victimisation deterrence, primarily through opportunity reduction, protection
and surveillance. This model shares much in common with situational crime prevention. It is
conservative because its founding principles are concerned with the control and its adheres
to a narrow definition of conventional crime.
In order to reduce opportunity, this perspective is usually linked to measures that are
designed, first to increase surveillance in the public domain e.g. on the street, in the
workplace, on public transport through police patrols, citizen watch committees, closed-
circuit cameras and confidential hotlines; and, second, to build better protection into existing
and new buildings, major complexes and residential areas through innovative design
techniques, target hardening, and private security agencies.
The model generally does not rest upon a sophisticated notion the causes of crime particularly
with respect to specific patterns of criminality associated with particular social groups. Rather
it assumes that crime is a matter of choice and opportunity, and therefore open for anyone to
pursue given the right circumstances. Most of the models practical application is in the areas
of conventional crime or street crime and workplace crime involving low level theft, pilfering
and passing on of confidential information. Issues relating to corporate crime would revolve
around the actions of particular individuals, not the overall context and activities of business
generally.
Liberal
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The mainstream, or liberal, approach to crime prevention views crime as a social problem
linked to particular individual deficit and group disadvantages. It is based upon the idea that
people, rather than crime control, should be the starting point for change, and that reform is
needed at the level of individual and collective circumstances.
This model borrows from theories such as biological and psychological explanations
generally oriented toward attributes of the individual, strain theory with an emphasis on the
disjuncture between cultural goals and structural means to attain these, labelling theory where
positive self-esteem is linked to personal resources and the nature of state intervention in
ones life, and some later forms of left realism which emphasize which emphasize multi-
agency approaches at a local level. The difference between the criminal and the non-criminal
is one dictated by biological, psychological and social circumstance.
The limitations of this model are, first, that it tends to deal only with the conventional crime,
and second, that it does not question the reasons why there is inequality to began with, and
why some people are especially disadvantaged under the present social system. More
fundamentally, this approach tends to be restricted solely to local initiatives, and thus is
severely limited in accessing the material resources necessary to transform the life chances
and opportunities of people and community.
The main aim of crime prevention in this model should be to identify risk factors in
individuals, families and communities and to seek to correct them. Consequently, this
perspective is associated with the social crime prevention strategies, particularly those aimed
at early intervention with at risk groups. Hence, it tends to underline much offender-
oriented crime prevention thinking in relation to juveniles. The approach principally
individuals who are expected to, or express, single or multiple risk factors.
RADICAL
Radical crime prevention is concerned with community control and social change. The
radical, or conflict, model of crime prevention sees law and order as an arena of political
struggle. Crime and criminality is historically and socially constructed, and is best understood
as reflecting structural social divisions and inequalities. It is most closely related with Marxist
criminological theory which sees class analysis as central to an understanding of crime under
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capitalism, feminist criminological theory with gender relations and power differentials the
major focus, and critical criminological referring here to perspective that examine the
oppression and marginalisation of groups on the basis of class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality
and race. The key concept is that of fundamental social change, which should be directed at
enhancing the material well-being, social rights and decision-making power of the majority in
society.
The goal is of social justice, the linchpin to addressing many people of the problems
associated with street crime, corporate crime and crimes of the state.
The main strategies favoured by this model therefore include action to reduce inequality
through such measures as redistribution of community resources and recollection of wealth
e.g. via taxation and nationalisation, and to encourage social empowerment by democratising
all facets of community life e.g. in the workplace, at the local neighbourhood level, in the
household, including areas such as policing and crime prevention. Addressing wider issues of
political and economic importance, as well as organising community members to exercise
control over their safety and well-being at the local level. This includes action being taken on
issues such as pollution; inadequate public transport, housing, or educational facilities; sexual
harassment; racist violence; and problems related to conventional crime and anti social
behaviour. Community members are seen as crucial agents of social change in their own
right.
The limitation of this model are, first, that invariably is resistance to any strategy that
challenge the status quo including that exerted by state officials such as the police, and
second, communities are often fractured ideologically into many different groups that do not
share the same beliefs and attitudes about social justice or the same perceptions regarding
appropriate crime prevention strategies. Shares consciousness and group solidarity do not
pre-exist; they must be forged in struggle and are part of a difficult and long term political
process.


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Bibliography

1) Dr. Tripathi R.N.; Crime and criminology; social control and human right;( 6th ed
2011); DPS publishing house (new delhi).
2) Sabhapati harin, crime and society, (1
st
ed 2005); dominant publishers and
distributors, Delhi.
Webliography
1) http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/
2) http://www.criminaljusticereform.gov.bc.ca/en/what_you_can_do/crime_prevention/
3) http://www.sacsheriff.com/crime_prevention/
4) http://www.saps.gov.za/crime_prevention/community/crimeprevent.pdf