An Evidence-Based Approach to Community Safety

Abstract

The author notes that despite the fact that the fight to move crime prevention to a more prominent place in the public agenda has been partially won after decades of effort, there is nonetheless a significant segment of the population and legislators who still believe that “cracking down on crime” is the best way to protect society. Some policy-makers have now been convinced that crime prevention is a better way of controlling crime than tinkering with laws and fine-tuning the justice system, but unless crime prevention advocates can continue to demonstrate that the time and money now going to crime prevention produces results, the author argues there is a risk of losing what has been gained. He describes some of what we know about the causation of crime and delinquency, links these findings with crime reduction strategies, and looks at some of the evidence concerning the effectiveness of these crime prevention programs. He observes sardonically that if reducing crime were a simple task, Canada would have become crime-free many years ago.