NCJ Number
155942
Date Published
1988
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Written for crime prevention practitioners and community leaders, this monograph argues that the responsibility for the reduction of common street crimes rests with the individual and the community and that the community must resume its historic responsibility for these crimes, leaving the full-time law enforcement professional free to focus on professional criminals and serious habitual offenders.
Abstract
A recent survey revealed that most people believe that crime is inevitable, nothing can be done, and that crime is a police problem and not their problem. However, the consensus of law enforcement executives is that the police cannot and should not have to attempt crime reduction efforts alone. Citizen involvement is neither new nor exceptional. Although crime prevention has been a traditional duty of law enforcement, tracing back to its early origins in the United States and England, crime prevention is also a public responsibility. Among the many successful individual and community crime prevention programs are neighborhood watch, crimestoppers, community crime councils, security surveys, fingerprinting children, anonymous reporting, court watch, telephone reassurance, bicycle registration, victim and witness assistance, direct deposit, youth programs, crime prevention through environmental design, property identification, tenant patrols, and escort services. List of additional crime prevention programs