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Going Around in Circles?: Reflections on Crime Prevention Strategies in Germany (From Crime Prevention Policies in Comparative Perspective, P 196-213, 2009, Adam Crawford, ed. - See NCJ-229306)

NCJ Number
229315
Author(s)
Michael Jasch
Date Published
2009
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This chapter presents an overview of the experiences from Germany, a Federal jurisdiction with irregular crime prevention policies.
Abstract
This chapter shows how Germany experienced specific factors that propelled and shaped developments; reunification significantly affected perceptions of insecurity within Germany and subsequent crime prevention strategies. Despite the unevenness of practices across Germany, some of the dominant trends over the last 30 years are shown, including a move towards localization and the reallocation of responsibilities, neither of which have been fully realized. The manner in which prevention policy appears to have come full circle is highlighted: from a repressive approach to crime through technical and situational prevention in the 1970s to a notion of social prevention in the 1980s, community strategies in the 1990s, and back to a predominance of repressive techniques in recent years. It suggests a decline in the role of social policies as a vehicle for prevention and suggests that much prevention policy has suffered from weak implementation, often due to lack of resources. It is largely in the fields of policing and surveillance that prevention has been most effectively developed, notably through forms of preventive detention and personal data collection; however, there is an emerging influence of early intervention programs targeting at risk families and young people. Figure, notes, and references