A/CONF. 187/7 (d) Situational crime prevention. Unlike the three support in developed countries. Sometimes this has been in other forms of crime prevention, all of which seek to the form of demonstration projects, such as the safer cities reduce the motivation for crime, situational prevention initiatives in the United Kingdom, and sometimes in the seeks to reduce opportunities for crime. This has been the form of generally available programmes such as fastest growing variety of crime prevention in the past neighbourhood watch in the United States and the 0 years. It has come to be associated with the spectacular Bonnemaison community development approach in France rise of private policing and the private security industry in Western countries during that period -In its government- (e) These crime prevention programmes have had sponsored forms it consists of crime prevention advertising a direct and visible effect on many aspects of peopl campaigns, efforts to influence city planning and everyday lives. Examples would include the adoption c architectural design to promote a crime-free environment defensible space "architecture in public housing(whi focused efforts to diagnose and remove opportunities for housing) and the widespread adoption of closed-circuit residential burglary and, more recently, putting pressure on business and industry to alter products and practices giving (d) Criminologists have greatly expanded writing rise to crime and research on crime prevention, as a result of which our 6. A large number of successes of situational prevention knowledge of the subject is much greater than it was have been documented, many of which show that crime is splaced by situational prevention. This form implementation and evaluation of crime prevention of prevention is now part of official crime control policy in programmes have been developed several European countries, including the United Kingdom (e) A large number of evaluations, in particular of the Netherlands and france. Even so. worries continue to situational prevention, have been published Many ofthese be expressed about the wider consequences for society of e valuations show tangible and sometimes dramatic pursuing this approach to prevention, in terms of erosion reductions in crime, of freedom and of unequal access to crime prevention (f The International Centre for the Prevention of benefits Crime, a not-for-profit non-governmental organization, has 7. In the present paper, a brief review of the current been established in Montreal with support from a small status of these approaches is undertaken followed by a consortium of countries. It runs a Best Practice Bureau discussion of the likely direction of future developments in which identifies, compiles and disseminates informationon the face of current needs and future challenges. Special successful crime prevention attention will be given to implementation difficulties, ethical considerations and the need for research and II. New challenges 9. Despite the considerable progress of the Il. Current status of crime prevention 20 years, many challenges lie ahead in developing the potential of crime prevention. Some of the challenges 8. It is only during the past 20 years that Governments result from unresolved ethical issues,implementation have devoted serious attention to crime prevention and that problems and technical difficulties in evaluating the it has become a subject for concentrated academic study. effectiveness of crime prevention, which will be discussed Even so, remarkable progress has been made, namely: separately. In this section challenges resulting from two (a) National crime prevention councils and main sources are identified: (a)the uneven development of agencies(directly or indirectly supported by government) crime prevention and(b)the broad social, economic and have beenestablished in many countries, including most of technological changes that are altering the nature of crime These challenges can be briefly stated as follows those in western Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States (a) In an era of"small government" marked by continual pressure to reduce government expenditure, the (b) Many community crime prevention additional resources needed for crime prevention are programmes have been implemented with governmentA/CONF.187/7 3 (d) Situational crime prevention. Unlike the three other forms of crime prevention, all of which seek to reduce the motivation for crime, situational prevention seeks to reduce opportunities for crime. This has been the fastest growing variety of crime prevention in the past 20 years. It has come to be associated with the spectacular rise of private policing and the private security industry in Western countries during that period.2 In its government￾sponsored forms it consists of crime prevention advertising campaigns, efforts to influence city planning and architectural design to promote a crime-free environment, focused efforts to diagnose and remove opportunities for highly specific forms of crime such as bank robbery or residential burglary and, more recently, putting pressure on business and industry to alter products and practices giving rise to crime. 6. A large number of successes of situational prevention have been documented,3 many of which show that crime is not merely displaced by situational prevention. This form of prevention is now part of official crime control policy in several European countries, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France. Even so, worries continue to be expressed about the wider consequences for society of pursuing this approach to prevention, in terms of erosion of freedom and of unequal access to crime prevention benefits. 7. In the present paper, a brief review of the current status of these approaches is undertaken followed by a discussion of the likely direction of future developments in the face of current needs and future challenges. Special attention will be given to implementation difficulties, ethical considerations and the need for research and evaluation. II. Current status of crime prevention 8. It is only during the past 20 years that Governments have devoted serious attention to crime prevention and that it has become a subject for concentrated academic study. Even so, remarkable progress has been made, namely: (a) National crime prevention councils and agencies (directly or indirectly supported by government) have been established in many countries, including most of those in western Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States; (b) Many community crime prevention programmes have been implemented with government support in developed countries. Sometimes this has been in the form of demonstration projects, such as the safer cities initiatives in the United Kingdom, and sometimes in the form of generally available programmes such as neighbourhood watch in the United States and the Bonnemaison community development approach in France; (c) These crime prevention programmes have had a direct and visible effect on many aspects of people’s everyday lives. Examples would include the adoption of “defensible space” architecture in public housing (which has contributed to the demolition of high-rise public housing) and the widespread adoption of closed-circuit television surveillance in town centres; (d) Criminologists have greatly expanded writing and research on crime prevention, as a result of which our knowledge of the subject is much greater than it was 20 years ago. Many new concepts assisting with the design, implementation and evaluation of crime prevention programmes have been developed; (e) A large number of evaluations, in particular of situational prevention, have been published. Many of these evaluations show tangible and sometimes dramatic reductions in crime; (f) The International Centre for the Prevention of Crime, a not-for-profit non-governmental organization, has been established in Montreal with support from a small consortium of countries. It runs a Best Practice Bureau, which identifies, compiles and disseminates information on successful crime prevention.4 III. New challenges 9. Despite the considerable progress of the past 20 years, many challenges lie ahead in developing the full potential of crime prevention. Some of the challenges result from unresolved ethical issues, implementation problems and technical difficulties in evaluating the effectiveness of crime prevention, which will be discussed separately. In this section challenges resulting from two main sources are identified: (a) the uneven development of crime prevention and (b) the broad social, economic and technological changes that are altering the nature of crime. These challenges can be briefly stated as follows: (a) In an era of “small government” marked by continual pressure to reduce government expenditure, the additional resources needed for crime prevention are