NCJ Number
215027
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 73 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2006 Pages: 22-27
Editor(s)
Charles E. Higginbotham
Date Published
July 2006
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article offers advice on engaging community support for law enforcement-led community crime prevention programs and presents examples of cost-effective crime prevention programs and strategies from across the country.
Abstract
Crime is a social phenomenon that requires a community response, yet the public almost exclusively looks to the police to solve crime problems. While crime control is not the exclusive responsibility of law enforcement agencies, it is up to the police to initiate and lead crime prevention programming. Statistics are offered on the cost of crime to the community and to organizations and individuals, which include monetary as well as psychological costs. Police agencies interested in engaging the action and support of the business community and the public in crime prevention programming should gather data on the costs of crime in their community. Additionally, knowing the costs involved with the police response to crime is recommended as a strategy for building support within police agencies for crime prevention programming. Specific techniques are described for illustrating the ratio of costs to benefits of crime prevention programming, such as combining data on the costs of crimes in the community with data on the cost-effectiveness of crime prevention strategies. Other strategies involve combining the national crime costs data with data from the community and by offering statistics from local business owners of the costs of crime to their businesses. A series of examples of cost-effective crime prevention programming from around the country are offered, which address crime issues ranging from fraud to child abuse. Once crime prevention programming has been implemented it is important to keep detailed records so that evaluations can be conducted of their effectiveness. 12 endnotes