NCJ Number
132460
Date Published
1991
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The focus of this paper is on models of community policing and crime prevention in France and the Netherlands.
Abstract
France has a National Committee on Crime Prevention and over 500 Crime Prevention Councils at the local level. Crime Prevention is generally planned and implemented by each town or city council. Police are represented on local Crime Prevention Councils and are guided to a certain extent by community requirements. Crime prevention programs in France are directed toward social justice goals, such as youth education, housing, employment, health services, crime victim assistance, immigrant and ethnic minority groups, drug abuse treatment, and youth development. The Dutch have a centralized bureaucracy that formulates crime prevention policy. This policy states that crime must be dealt with by prosecuting offenders and by society as a whole; that distinctions must be made between serious offenses and common crimes; and that close coordination is needed between the police, prosecutors, and local government. Community policing occurs in the Netherlands when various committees are set up at the local level to implement their own crime prevention programs. Some local programs have focused on alternative sentences for young people guilty of vandalism, football hooliganism, crimes against the elderly, and the improvement of street lighting. Other crime prevention initiatives in the Netherlands encompass education, public transport, shop stealing, truancy, drugs, and needle exchange programs. The relevance of French and Dutch community policing strategies to Australia is discussed. 6 references