Citizen Participation and Community Crime Prevention, 1979: Chicago Metropolitan Area Survey

This conceptual article focuses on the potential to advance and extend guardianship using new digital crime prevention applications that have been developed as a consequence of technological advancements in communication and social engagement. The new opportunity structure for informal guardianship through active citizen participation and involvement in crime prevention and control efforts using the Internet and smartphones is discussed to emphasize how this has changed in the digital age. Specifically, the article highlights how the fundamental tenets of guardianship (i.e., what it means to be available, how supervision or monitoring is carried out and ways of intervening) have evolved due to neighborhood watch/community safety mobile applications. Based on what we have learned about guardianship, this article considers the potential for these digital crime prevention applications to extend and support guardianship. It also assesses these applications critically by highlighting some of the concerns and risks that need to be considered amid the proliferation of these new platforms for crime control. The article concludes by weighing up the pros and cons with a view to focusing on key issues in the continued development of such applications so their potential can be maximized.

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Community Crime Prevention: An Analysis of a Developing Strategy

Crime & Delinquency ◽

10.1177/001112878102700307 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 405-421 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Dan A. Lewis ◽

Greta Salem

Keyword(s):

Social Control ◽

Crime Prevention ◽

Theoretical Foundation ◽

Developing Strategy ◽

New Approach ◽

The Social ◽

Community Crime Prevention ◽

Major Shift ◽

Theoretical Foundations ◽

New Strategies

Crime prevention strategies often aim at changing the motivations and predispositions of offenders. A new approach has developed within the last dec ade which focuses on changing the behavior of potential victims. The authors explore the theoretical foundations of the new strategies for reducing crime, commonly known as community crime prevention. They suggest that the in novation is a result of a major shift in the research paradigm for studying the effects of crime. The orientation underlying community crime prevention is labeled the "victimization perspective." Following a description of some limitations in that perspective, the authors offer, as an alternative, a perspective oriented toward social control. The social control perspective, which is based on the empirical findings of several recently completed research projects, offers a theoretical foundation both for a fresh approach to the study of the effects of crime and for the development of policies for community crime prevention.

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