CURRENT CRIME PREVENTION PROGRAM

Crime prevention Program

Crime Prevention Program

Crime prevention is the attempt to reduce victimization and to deter crime and criminals. It is applied specifically to efforts made by governments to reduce crime, enforce the law, and maintain criminal justice. Crime prevention is any initiative or policy which reduces or eliminates the aggregate level of victimization or the risk of individual criminal participation. It includes government and community based programs to reduce the incidents of risk factors correlated with criminal participation and the rate of victimization, as well as efforts to change perceptions.

Primary prevention address individual and family level factors correlated with later criminal participation. Individual level factors such as attachment to school and involvement in pro-social activities decrease the probability of criminal involvement. Family level factors such as consistent parenting skills similarly reduce individual level risk. Risk factors are additive in nature. The greater the number of risk factors present the greater the risk of criminal involvement. In addition there are initiatives which seek to alter rates of crime at the community or aggregate level.

For example, Larry Sherman from the University of Maryland in Policing Domestic Violence (1993) demonstrated that changing the policy of police response to domestic violence calls altered the probability of subsequent violence. Policing hot spots, areas of known criminal activity, decreases the number of criminal events reported to the police in those areas. Other initiatives include community policing efforts to capture known criminals. Organizations such as America's Most Wanted, Crime Stoppers, and Most Wanted Hoes, these help catch the criminals.

Secondary prevention uses techniques focusing on at risk situations such as youth who are dropping out of school or getting involved in gangs. It targets social programs and law enforcement at neighborhoods where crime rates are high. The use of secondary crime prevention in cities such as Birmingham and Bogotá have achieved large reductions in crime and violence. Programs that are focused on youth at risk have been shown to significantly reduce crime. (Neocleous, 2004)

The Community Crime Prevention Task Force was convened to study the root causes of crime in the community, determine the types of programs most likely to prevent crime or effectively intervene in the lives of those at risk of criminal behavior, and make recommendations about how the community could prevent crime in the future. The task force examined the underlying problems that led to a surge in violent crime in Indianapolis and in 2007 recommended actions to stem the violence and to prevent crime before it occurs.  On July 23, 2007, the City-County Council passed Proposal No. 264 to increase the County Option Income Tax (COIT) to provide funding for crime prevention initiatives like those recommended by the Community Crime Prevention Task Force in its January 2007 Report.  

The goal of the Community Crime Prevention Grant program is to reduce crime by funding programs that will fill a documented gap in existing services and focus on one of the following: ex-offender reintegration/reentry, youth engagement, education, safe neighborhoods, or ...