NCJ Number
195428
Journal
Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: 2002 Pages: 9-18
Date Published
2002
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This overview of recent British developments in the audit and strategy process of crime-and-disorder-reduction partnerships (CDRP's) critiques the intertwined dominant "audit culture" and the "what works" paradigm of policy and practice, whose influence is significant in the field of crime prevention.
Abstract
In the first section of the paper, the lessons of the post-Morgan agenda of the 1990's are outlined. This agenda involved practices, policies, and politics associated with the promotion of local community safety partnerships in the pre-1998 period. In practice this involved compromise, collusion, and conflict between various coalitions, particularly between central and local government. The overall verdict of academic research to date on the beneficial consequences of the new statutory CDRPs since the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act has been guarded. One of the criticisms focuses on the obsession with targets/outputs that can be measured. Trust and grants of discretionary power are increasingly being replaced by detailed specifications of performance and evaluation. On the other hand, cited benefits include the broadening of responsibility for community safety among a variety of community entities and attention to the impacts of various crime-prevention policies and programs. Much of the emphasis of recent detailed research studies on the first phase of audits and strategies has been placed on the uncritical and rather "safe" approach adopted by CDRPs in complying with the central government's priorities of addressing vehicle crime, burglary, and violent crime. It is too soon to predict with any certainty what shape and form the next round of audits and strategies will take. This paper raises some issues and questions likely to face local CDRPs after 2002. One of the author's concerns is that local authorities, in focusing on measurable performance objectives, will fail to recognize broader issues of social developments and conditions in a community that are affecting crime. 45 notes