NCJ Number
72501
Journal
Indian Journal of Criminology Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: (July 1980) Pages: 125-128
Date Published
1980
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The importance of the prevention of delinquency and crime in India is examined as a primary social need, a vital police function, and as the responsibility of public volunteer agencies working in cooperation with the police.
Abstract
While police and public responsibilities for preventing crime and delinquency were signaled in the 19th century, the Indian police began to update and refine their preventative procedures only after international conferences on the prevention of crime and treatment of offenders in the 1950's. Police prevention operates on the assumption that uniformed police presence will deter criminal and that prompt detection and punishment will prove to the criminal that crime does not pay. To make protection of society meaningful and the prevention of delinquency and crime a dynamic process, public participation in all aspects of the program become absolutely essential. A program for effective community self-protection will depend largely on systematic two-way communication between the public and the police, as well as their cooperation in an intensive and broad-based study of the local crime problem. As removal of the causes of crime from the individual personality and the environment can alone provide a lasting solution, individuals and community organizations should contribute toward easing tensions and resolving conflicts, both internal and external, and building up of resistances. People can help in their own neighborhoods through vigilance and surveillance with regard to strangers, suspects, and known criminals and through education of the community regarding measures designed to safeguard the public peace and protect life and property. The Children's Aid Societies in Madras and Bombay are good examples of community groups in action, as are Citizens Committees in many urban areas. Furthermore, preventive work must be carried through from the predelinquency stage; through the pretrial, conviction, and correctional stages, and on to the aftercare stage. An evaluation of the delinquency and crime prevention efforts in different countries might help to provide certain lessons in formulating plans for community-police crime prevention efforts. No references are supplied.