NCJ Number
186745
Journal
Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Dated: 2000 Pages: 47-60
Date Published
2000
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This analysis of community safety and crime control policies in the United Kingdom contends that community safety should not be regarded as synonymous with crime reduction and control of social disorder; instead, it needs to be linked to wider concerns about both hazards and safety from both criminal and noncriminal harms.
Abstract
The discussion notes criminology’s silence until recently regarding the issue of community safety, as well as criminology’s current conflation of community safety with crime reduction. The analysis also considers how the New Labor Party’s Crime and Disorder Act 1998 is reshaping the meaning and practice of community safety. The paper next presents sociological speculations on the possible and probable career of the new occupation of community safety officer in the context of the audit culture in the United Kingdom. Finally, the paper argues for a replacement discourse that would focus on reduction of harm from all hazards and would move beyond the dominant, negative paradigm of crime and disorder reduction. Reference notes (Author abstract modified)