NCJ Number
93244
Date Published
1982
Length
27 pages
Annotation
A report on crime prevention in the Netherlands outlines steps taken in a nationwide crime prevention effort, discusses crime prevention strategies developed through victimological risk analysis, and reports findings on the effectiveness of crime prevention programs in The Hague, Amsterdam, and Hoogeveen.
Abstract
Specific crime prevention efforts over the last decade have included appointment of crime prevention officers (CPO's) at the local and state level, establishment of regional bureaus and a national interdepartmental bureau headed by the National Crime Prevention Coordinator to coordinate CPO activities, and development of special programs based on the results of national victim surveys. National media campaigns were conducted in 1977 and 1978 to promote public support. The victimological risk model that serves as the theoretical framework for the crime prevention effort defines factors determining the potential of certain groups or individuals for becoming victims of petty offenses. The principal factors identified are geographic and social proximity of offender and victim, sexual or material attractiveness of the victim, and technical and social exposure of the victim. Having determined these factors, crime prevention experts have been able to identify points at which barriers can be placed between potential offenders and potential victims. The barriers may be established through technoprevention, socioprevention, or crime prevention through environmental design. Using these guidelines, a police crime prevention effort in Amsterdam successfully combined foot and bicycle patrols with personal crime prevention instruction to improve the public image of the police and public willingness to report crimes and to reduce citizens' feelings of insecurity. Similar programs in The Hague and Hoogeveen have been less successful because of the failure of their media campaigns to reach women, the elderly, and individuals in lower level socio-economic groups. The general conclusion from police experiments is that direct police-public contact is more effective than media campaigns in reaching all segments of the population. Results of studies on bicycle theft indicating that only certain preventive measures are effective and that bystanders are unlikely to intervene also suggest that active contacts between police and public may be the most promising avenue for crime prevention. Notes and a bibliography are supplied.