Cost-Benefit Analysis of Developmental Prevention

This chapter provides a cost-benefit analysis of developmental crime prevention. From a life-course perspective, developmental prevention offers an intriguing solution to address growing concerns regarding current criminal justice practices, given the growing body of research that suggests that this type of intervention is both results-oriented and fiscally responsible. To this end, this chapter lays out the case for the economics of developmental crime prevention. It next provides an overview of the methodological basis, and related considerations, of a cost-benefit analysis, which assigns monetary values to program outcomes relative to program costs so as to provide an estimate of the financial return on investment. The chapter then reviews the leading cost-benefit analysis studies in developmental crime prevention today and offers a glimpse at the future of such research.

35. Crime prevention and community safety

This chapter traces and evaluates both the historic emergence of the modern ‘preventive turn’ as well as the elaboration and institutionalization of crime prevention and community safety over the last thirty years or so. Focusing on the UK, the evolution and changes over time are situated, where relevant, in a broader international context. The chapter identifies three distinct periods of development that structure the shifts in crime prevention policy and practices from the 1980s to the present day. It explores the conceptualization, take-up, and advancement of a preventive mentality and practices in relation to situational, social, and developmental crime prevention as well as community safety. It goes on to assess the institutionalization of preventive partnerships and early intervention as distinct forms of governance and their implications for ‘responsibilization’ and ‘securitization’. In conclusion, it reflects upon the journey travelled thus far as well as possible future directions in an age of austerity.