Community-based crime prevention: prospect and threats

Abstract

Community-based prevention is one of the approaches to crime prevention that incorporates situational and social elements and it has theoretical background in several theories of crime. It arises due to the fact that the state can not cope and prevent crime alone without help, support and active participation of the community. In addition, because crime occurs in a community, it became local problem, whose social causes are also rooted in the community. That means that community has responsibility to prevent crime and to secure safety of its citizens. However, until this approach touches the real concerns of citizens and tries to explain and understand crime in a wider social context, we can not expect some positive results. Otherwise, certain situational prevention measures which are often criticized that are inconsistent with certain human rights (eg the right to free movement or the right to privacy) initiate the debate for the effectiveness and treats of that approach That means that despite the idea to create social order through the mechanisms of situational control, (which can be effective), we cannot ignore the important ethical questions about the methods used for crime prevention as the ultimate goal. Taking into account the previous, this article open up questions related to the prospects and threats of community-based crime prevention, emphasizes its roots, theoretical backgrounds and current models and interventions.