Crime Prevention

In the past four years the Government has placed greater emphasis on crime prevention. Some 12 government departments have been brought together in a ministerial group to deal with crime prevention strategies. These include efforts to improve security on housing estates; to ensure that architects, planners and designers make new dwellings less easy to burgle; and to understand the root causes of crime. The Government is also seeking action by the European Community to encourage car manu­facturers to design their products in such a way as to make it difficult for criminals to steal vehicles or their contents.

In 1986 five local projects were set up with support from the Home Office to see how crime and the fear of crime could be reduced through coordinated action by local government, private businesses, the police and voluntary agencies. As part of the Government's safer cities pro­gram, these successful projects are being extended on the same basis to some other urban areas. The establishment of local crime prevention panels has been encouraged and there are nearly 56,000 neighbourhood watch schemes, some of which have succeeded in reducing crimes such as burglary. In 1988 Crime Concern, a national independent voluntary body, was formed to support local crime prevention activity and to pro­mote best practices in it.