Street Watch: Concept and Practice: Civilian Participation in Street Prostitution Control

Abstract

This paper contrasts the conceptual basis for Street Watch as a general community crime-prevention initiative with its implementation, looking in detail at one such programme in the Grangetown area of Cardiff.1 Grangetown Street Watch is a civilian/police partnership, whose activities are focused entirely upon a single illegal activity—street prostitution—ostensibly in the interests of the wider community. This study reveals a failure of that partnership in terms of both the underlying ethos upon which Street Watch was legitimated politically, and the adequacy of police supervision and regulatory control in its practical incarnation. Part of the difficulty lies in the changing perceptions of the parties themselves, as to their respective roles within the scheme. It is argued that local crime-prevention partnerships must operate within a comprehensive legal framework to ensure that the responsibilities of state agencies are not off-loaded (without clearly demarcated lines of accountability) onto citizens.