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Community-Based Crime Prevention

Definition

Any prevention approach that relies on residents themselves, rather than police or situational design alone, to reduce crime and disorder in a defined local area.

Related terms

Beat System
The division of a police jurisdiction into fixed local patrol areas, each assigned to an officer expected to build familiarity with residents;...
Community Policing
A policing model that builds sustained partnerships between officers and residents through foot patrols, neighbourhood liaison, and joint problem identification. Emphasises prevention...
Neighbourhood Watch
A scheme in which residents of a street or small area agree to watch out for suspicious activity, report it to the...
Selection Bias
A distortion that arises when the group being studied is not a random sample of the wider population; in Neighbourhood Watch research,...
Collective Efficacy
A concept developed by Robert Sampson referring to the combination of social cohesion among neighbours and their shared willingness to intervene in...
Exclusionary Surveillance
Watching or reporting that treats unfamiliar people, particularly on the basis of race, age, or class, as inherently suspicious, turning a crime-reporting...
Informal Social Control
The regulation of behaviour through neighbours noticing, commenting on, or reporting on one another, rather than through police or courts.
Mohalla Committee
A local resident committee, prominent in Mumbai and Bhiwandi from the early 1990s, that meets periodically with a beat constable to flag...

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