Community Crime Prevention Guide
Printable Version (PDF/1.4MB)
Develop a Community Crime Prevention Action Plan
Implement an Action Plan
Research demonstrates that crime prevention initiatives tend to encounter three main challenges. These relate to capacity, mandate and resources.
- Although working in partnership is key to success, not every community will have equal capacity to deliver on multi-agency partnerships. In reality, very disadvantaged communities where interventions are most needed may have difficulty developing and sustaining partnerships, conducting needs assessments, identifying programs that show promise of reducing crime and conducting evaluations. Related to this is the fact that co-operation with crime reduction projects may not be readily obtained from agencies who don't deal with crime regularly.
- A second major challenge is that the organizations that are mandated to respond, and that have the greatest level of resources, are sometimes not inclined to break new ground. They will need encouragement to extend their mandate or activities.
- The third key challenge is the reality of limited resources. The availability of resources is often the key determinant of the choice of response to crime prevention problems. Community agencies and groups often do not have the flexibility, resources or staff to take on additional responsibilities.
These challenges can be overcome. Practical tools are available to assist communities to plan and implement crime prevention strategies based on the basic principles of:
- Leadership
- Partnerships
- Safety diagnosis or audit
- Action plans
- Implementation
- Evaluation
Resources
The Primer: Municipal Crime Prevention
(PDF/1.07MB). The Primer, available through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, provides guidance on how to organize locally, identify problems, develop crime prevention programs and implement them, and monitor and evaluate programs.
The Key to Safer Municipalities: This toolkit was developed with the assistance of the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime. It provides detailed information on what municipalities can do to implement effective crime prevention strategies in their communities. Fact sheets are included that provide communities with the information required to identify unique risk factors and safety problems, secure political commitment, develop partnerships, engage citizens and develop a plan of action. To obtain a copy of this toolkit, send an e-mail to: cipc@crime-prevention-intl.org.
Sustainable Approaches to Crime Prevention through Social Development: This toolkit was developed by the Centre for Initiatives on Children, Youth and Community, in collaboration with the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Working Group on Community Safety and Crime Prevention. The toolkit assumes community leaders are well versed in the principles of community mobilization and crime prevention through social development. It is designed for community mobilizers, policy makers, community leaders and community residents to work together to find sustainable ways to address issues of common concern. The publication includes interactive materials such as a workshop plan, facilitator's notes, participant exercises, a PowerPoint presentation, handouts, worksheets and an evaluation form.
Sustainable Approaches acknowledges it can be challenging to undertake a sustainable approach to crime prevention if funding is only available for short-term projects. It offers a sustainable, holistic approach to community planning.
The toolkit contains materials designed to help:
- provide information to different community players on the philosophy and principles of a sustainable approach;
- facilitate a dialogue on sustainability among people and organizations in the community, while encouraging them to develop horizontal and vertical relationships;
- encourage communities to invest in a sustainable plan early in their process; and
- provide examples and insight into ways to support sustainability, such as capacity building.
