Crime prevention series

Planning our program

Published in:
Crime prevention for migrant communities
Kayleen M Hazlehurst
Canberra : Australian Institute of Criminology, 1990
ISBN 0 642 15514 3 ; ISSN 1031-5330
(Crime prevention series) ; pp. 13-19

Identifying the problems

The first task of the working group is to identify what needs to change in order for our community's vision to be realised. This requires that the working group collect and analyse as much information as necessary to do this.

There are many different ways to gather the information needed, including: looking at records and statistics, conducting person to person interviews, completing surveys or questionnaires, or holding community meetings. For the purposes of this handbook, a community meeting has been described.

The community meeting

The purpose of the community meeting is:

• to to identify the community vision;
• to gather information about what crime problems need to be resolved; and,
• to get community contributions about solutions for these problems. Because the community meeting allows everyone present to talk about their ideas, the information that is gathered will be more representative of the whole community.

Target crime and target offenders

By removing the desire of the individuals (target group), and the opportunities (target crime) to commit the crime, successful crime prevention will occur. Planning the program, therefore, requires that both the target group and the target crime be defined.

The target group

Removing the desire of the target group to commit the crime requires that the reasons why these people want to commit crime be examined.

Criminal behaviour may be explained in many different ways. Often we will see that the spiritual, mental, physical and emotional qualities of the person have been developed unequally, or have not been developed at all, and as a result the person is not complete, is not balanced or healthy.

Many times personal problems such as alcoholism, boredom, or peer pressure, may be partly responsible for causing people to commit the crime. These types of problems will need to be resolved by personal development, and by redirecting people's desire from doing harmful things to doing good things in the community.

Personal development can be achieved through a variety of methods including:

• guidance by older members of the family and community,
• peer group meetings or support groups-, and
• opportunities for individuals to become involved in constructive and rewarding community activities.

Personal development is a continuing process; changes in behaviour will occur as people progress along the path to good health and social wellbeing.

The target crime

Change in a person takes time. The results may last for the rest of that person's life, but will not happen overnight. Therefore, removing the opportunity for crime should also be used. This way there will be immediate effects on the crime problem.

Each crime has many different circumstances, such as: type of crime, how severe it is, when it occurs, where it occurs, who committed the crime, and how it is done.

To be effective in crime prevention, the circumstances of the target crime must first be identified.

Taking away the opportunity to commit a crime involves deciding what kind of environment is necessary to the crime being committed (for example, a dark street, no-one being around, or no-one caring). Change this environment, and the opportunity to commit the crime is considerably reduced.

The circumstances of the crime that are similar in all cases in the community need to be identified. It may be that the majority of offences occur at night, or in a certain area or time, or they may mostly involve family members. The more circumstances that are similar that can be found, the easier it will be to plan a preventative plan of action.

For instance, if it is found that the target crime is vandalism or street assault, which usually:

• occurs at night;
• occurs around the school, shopping centre, back streets, pubs;
• is perpetrated by youth;

then the solution becomes easier to find. Increasing the lighting, or patrolling an area, will take away the opportunity for someone to vandalise a building without being noticed, or to attack a helpless woman on her way home.

If domestic violence and child abuse are the target crimes this may require raising people's awareness that this is harmful to everyone in the community and should no longer be tolerated. The establishment of special intervention teams and/or special support groups to help both offenders and victims may be necessary.

The program that is developed should focus on both the crime and the individuals committing the crime.

Gathering information for prevention

The first job of our crime prevention team is to contact relevant agencies to gather information on crime prevention strategies.

The second job is to take responsibility for setting up community meetings to inform the community about crime prevention and to invite community ideas, support, and participation.

People should be invited to offer a vision for the future of their community, what problems they feel should be handled first, and which goals they would like the working group to adopt.

Community education

Planning for community education should aim at popular participation. This could include group talks, public education exhibitions, audio-visual aids, seminars, and other educational programs. Wide participation may be drawn from schools, community agencies and professionals as well as known community workers and local residents.

What can our community do about these problems? How can people stand together to defeat the effects of drug and alcohol addiction, vandalism and muggings, domestic violence and child abuse? What are the community standards to be on these issues? How much is the community prepared to tolerate before it will act in its own defence?

These are some of the questions which need to emerge from community discussions. They are all serious issues which affect the tone and quality of our daily life. There are other groups and service agencies in our locality which can be called upon to assist in raising public awareness of our options.

The police, also, will assist in providing information to our crime prevention group, will attend public meetings, and will present to our working group information about programs already available. But the choice will ultimately be the community's in what we do about crime in our area.

The purpose of community education is not to sanction the establishment of vigilante defence groups. These have proven to aggravate problems more frequently than to solve them. It is, rather, to provide a for-um for people to develop positive community-based approaches which attack the cause of social ills, as they are understood by the local people. For example, to examine the local causes of alcohol or drug addiction, juvenile delinquency, marital breakdown, urban isolation and friendlessness, rather than their symptoms of theft, robbery, street assault, and suicide. Most of these problems can be traced back to deeper needs in family or community life.

We can make this a learning and strengthening experience for our community. In exploring these issues we will discover something about ourselves.

Shaping our goals

The purpose of community-based discussions on crime prevention, and of consultation with the police and other local agencies, is to identify the nature and frequency of local problems.

In the light of community priorities, we need to construct a plan which addresses these concerns. These goals should be kept simple. It is often better to focus on one or possibly two problems at a time. Once positive change is seen in these areas, new goals and new programs can be set up.

Workshops and training

Our knowledge of crime prevention can be highlighted by setting up special workshops or training sessions for interested community members. We can invite specialists or other volunteers who have some experience of these programs and techniques to speak to us on those subjects which the community feel are important.

It is recommended that training for members of the working group be presented in bite-size portions - working up from simple to the more difficult tasks.

Group sessions could begin with a series of discussions on 'Personal Safety and Household Security', for instance. They could then move on to more complex problems concerning the needs of the elderly, problems of juvenile delinquency, the effects of crime and domestic violence on women and children, and problems of organised crime, corruption, intimidation and extortion.

A plan for action

A plan for action should be drawn up with our goals in mind. We decide what steps we need to take to achieve these goals; who needs to be involved; what kinds of programs we want to set up, and how we plan to go about doing this.

To divide the work up into smaller steps, and to decide who will share the responsibilities for achieving these steps, will make the programs seem easier and within our reach.

Developing para-professionals

With time and experience, our working group will develop its own skilled people who can act as para-professionals, giving advice to other community members, or organisations who may be interested in developing community-based programs for crime prevention in the future.

It has often been the case where participants, who were once seen to be 'the problem' in a community, become so committed to these programs through the changes they have brought in their own lives, that they become their most enthusiastic supporters. This is why it is important not to underestimate the talent or possible contribution of every community member.

A continuing service

The continuing role of our crime prevention working group is to act as a regular problem-solving, and solution-seeking body.

This may involve, at times, the need to act as an interpreter or broker between the community and other agencies or community groups - especially where cultural misunderstandings or conflicts might arise.

Developing skills in intervention and mediation will help the working group negotiate special arrangements and to improve understanding between the parties involved.

Where particularly difficult disputes arise these may need to be referred to an established Dispute Resolution Centre, or Mediation Service set up for this purpose. Referral of problems, and knowing where to seek help, is also an important skill of the working group.

Getting professional evaluation

Our community may like to take this a step further by commissioning a professional evaluation. Inquire with local government agencies, research institutes or universities as to whether a researcher would be interested in assisting with the monitoring and evaluation of our crime prevention project. Be sure to sensitise this researcher towards the community's problems, objectives for change, and planning techniques.

A project of this kind would lend itself well to action-oriented research, that is, research which is involved in the development of the project from the beginning, and which provides input to our crime prevention decision-making.

Explain to the researcher that an analysis of the human and social issues, and future needs of the community, will assist evaluation purposes best. Future decisions on policy, training, community education, and community participation could also benefit from this analysis.

Where it is necessary, or where community needs have changed it may be beneficial to make some changes or adjustments to the program.

The working group should not be disheartened when a program does not achieve community acceptance or success overnight. In any exercise of community development, changes and adjustments are a normal part of growth and learning.

An evaluation of things which have worked, and also which have not worked so well, and why, is an important stage in our experimentation with community development and crime prevention.