NCJ Number
209373
Journal
Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: 2004 Pages: 205-219
Date Published
2004
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This article examines the development, implementation and effectiveness of community policing (proximity policing) in the Nordic countries.
Abstract
Over the last few decades, policing in the Nordic countries has experienced change in both practice and ideology. For the police, the specific goal of making citizens feel safer has become prominent. To accomplish this goal, proximity policing was introduced. This article reviews existing research on proximity policing from all the Nordic countries focusing specifically on the comprehensive evaluation of a Danish experiment. The evaluation indicates that the concept of proximity policing has had limited success with abandonment of proximity policing coming from Finland and Norway. This article focuses on community policing/proximity policing in Nordic countries through a description of the development of community policing in each of the Nordic countries, a presentation of the main results of the Danish experiment, and the difficulties of implementing community policing. The article concludes with suggestions on how the police can make the citizens of the Nordic countries feel safer. References