NCJ Number
137852
Date Published
1991
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This speech reviews a chronological survey that analyzed Belgian research on security and crime prevention in the 1980's.
Abstract
In the 1970's and early 1980's, crime prevention attracted virtually no research attention. In 1984, two agencies at the Universities of Gent and Leuven received the task of researching the protection of juveniles in theory and practice. When acts of terrorism and political crimes dramatically changed the Belgian crime focus of the 1980's, the Department of the Interior developed a research program exploring police tasks and the feelings of insecurity in the population. Based on the results, experts developed a central strategy for the prevention of crime. As a further step, a research group at the University of Gent was asked to analyze specific local delinquency problems and make recommendations for local crime prevention. In 1989 and 1990, the research organization Synergie was charged to evaluate several Belgian and foreign crime prevention models. This significant research effort emphasized the need for greater cooperation among the different Belgian agencies in an effort to prevent crime. However, it will be difficult and time-consuming to achieve such a co-operation because of political problems on the national and local levels. 8 references