Virtual library
Advanced List for Practitioners
The list below is a selection of titles that you may find useful as you go deeper into crime reduction and community safety work. Most of them are published commercially and incur a cost, although some are available free via the internet.
It is not prescriptive or exhaustive - we welcome your suggestions for good reads in this subject area. Please email us with your suggestions and why you found them useful in your work. We will be adding separate lists on particular topics in the future - if there are any subjects you would like us to cover, please email us with your suggestions. | The titles are organised alphabetically by author/corporate author - where the publisher provides details and/or an ordering service, we have provided the link, but please note that titles will be available through independent booksellers and may be available through local libraries.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If you have any suggestions for suitable titles that you find useful, please email us so we can add them to the list. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(2002) Audit Commission
Community Safety Partnerships: learning from audit, inspection and research.
London: Audit Commission
This report highlights key issues for councillors and senior managers of community safety partnerships, together with other stakeholders in the wider world of government and related bodies. The purpose of the report is to review the performance of those local agencies that have been engaged in delivering community safety since 1999. It also explores the key issues facing community safety partnerships as they develop and implement strategies for the period 2002-05. It examines how well local partnerships have performed during the first strategy period, considering the performance assessment framework and the evidence for performance. It identifies key areas for improvement and suggests ways to improve performance. A summary is available as well the full report from the Audit Commission's website.
Contents and summary report:
http://ww2.audit-commission.gov.uk/publications/pdf/com_safety_ brief.pdf 
PDF 136kb
Full report:
http://ww2.audit-commission.gov.uk/publications/pdf/com_safety_report.pdf PDF 808 Kb
Hard copies can be ordered from the Audit Commission book supplier, tel: 0800 502030
ISBN number: 1862403775
Price: £18
. eds. (2000) Ballintyne, K. Pease, K. and McClaren, V
Secure Foundations: Key issues in Crime Prevention, Crime Reduction and Community Safety
London: IPPR
This volume's content originates from two conferences; in Leeds in 1997, and in Derby in 1999. The quantity of collected papers grapples with two key issues; one being the challenges of understanding community safety, connecting crime prevention and crime reduction within this perception. The other issue seeks to find how existing better practices, within crime prevention and crime reduction, can be introduced into the explosion of local activity arising from legislation.
and Price, R (2000) Brand, S
The economic and social costs of crime, HORS 217.
London: Home Office
This paper seeks to provide a basis for cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness comparisons and public debate. It sets out the rationale for estimates, some sources of data, and explains some of the economic concepts used. The majority of high-profile crimes are costed in the report, which is intended to be of use both to policy-makers and practitioners in developing evidence-based crime reduction measures. Given a general lack of cost data, this report is invaluable to those planning crime reduction measures.
More details from:
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/statistics/statistics9.htm
Download the full report:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hors217.pdf PDF 217 kb
. ed. (1997) Clarke, R.V
Situational Crime Prevention: successful case studies (2nd edition).
NY: Harrow and Heston
The second edition of this title expands on the 12 techniques of situational crime prevention giving 16 opportunity-reducing techniques with a new section on removing excuses. Clarke gives an introduction to situational prevention and relevant criminological theories before introducing 23 case studies, only 10 of which appeared in the first edition. The case studies are from various countries and cover many situations, including retail, transport, public telephones, nightclubs, vehicles and housing.
ISBN number: 0-911577-38-6 (paperback)
Price: £26
For reference, the first edition of Situational Crime Prevention was published by Harrow and Heston in 1992.
(1998) Crawford, A
Crime Prevention & Community Safety: politics, policies and practices,
Harlow: Longman
Published around the same time as the Crime and Disorder Act, this book seeks to show that there are political and ideological assumptions that lie behind the emphasis on crime prevention strategies and implementation. It looks at the way policies are informed by the politics of crime control and vice versa, and the way they are shaped by, and in turn shape, existing practices. The nature and consequences of the shift to crime prevention on relations between the state and individuals are considered, as are the implications for the many organisations increasingly charged with responsibility for delivering community safety.
Chapters cover definitions of crime prevention, a brief history of crime prevention and major events, situational strategies, social strategies, implanting and the partnership approach, evaluation, some comparative experiences, and the wider social implications of the shift to crime prevention. Part of the Longman Criminology Series, which aims to provide a broad introduction to criminology.
ISBN number: 0582-29457-6 (paperback)
Price: £24.99
http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/Academics/Book.asp?prodID=100000000003352&d=&sd
. (2000) Crowe T.D
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: applications of architectural design and space management concepts (2nd edition).
Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann
This book is aimed at those involved in architectural design, space management, and urban planning, but is also a useful primer for crime reduction practitioners and end-users. It provides an understanding of the link between human behaviour and design to help the planner use natural environmental factors to affect human behaviour in a positive manner, to minimise loss and crime and maximise productivity. It addresses several environmental settings, including major event facilities, small retail establishments, downtown streets, residential areas and playgrounds, and contrasts poor CPTED designs with effective ones to illustrate the principles involved. Although it has a US bias, it is still relevant to UK practitioners.
Topics covered include: introduction to CPTED; crime and loss prevention; CPTED concepts and strategies; historical and behavioural precedents of CPTED; using the environment to affect behaviour; aesthetics; environmental cues; examples of CPTED strategies and applications.
ISBN number: 0 750 671 98 X
Price: £38.99
. (1997) Gilling, D
Crime Prevention: theory, policy and practice.
London: Routledge
This work summarizes and synthesizes the substantial crime prevention literature to provide an approachable and comprehensive text for students. It sets out a critical analysis in the context of the politics of criminal justice policy. It covers the theory and practice of crime prevention, the Home Office and crime prevention policy, the roles of the police, Local Authorities, the community, the probation service and the collaborative framework and the politics of crime prevention. Published prior to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, this book sets out the background at the time.
ISBN number: 1857284917
Price: £21.99
. (1998) Hughes, G
Understanding crime prevention: Social control, risk and late modernity,
Buckingham: Open University Press
This book offers a comprehensive overview of current and historical debates about crime prevention in particular and social control more generally. It moves beyond the traditional boundaries of criminology and offers an original re-framing of the crime prevention field based on a synthesis of new thinking in social theory. In particular, theorising around late modernity, risk society, communitarianism and globalization are put forward as important ways of linking trends in crime prevention to wider social changes.
As part of the Crime and Justice Series, this book is aimed at both students and professionals highlighting some of the issues in crime prevention and community safety.
ISBN number: 0335199402
Price: £17.99
Details: http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk:2000/html/0335199402.html
Note: Hughes G, McLaughlin E, & Muncie J. (eds) (2002) have published a collection of articles which cover the areas around risk, control, conflict and post-modernism. It is titled:
Crime Prevention and Community Safety: new directions.
London: Sage,
, S (2000) Radburn
Data Exchange & Crime Mapping: a guide for Crime and Disorder Partnerships.
London: Home Office
This report examines the opportunities that crime mapping gives to partnerships to identify local crime patterns and develop meaningful solutions to problems. It identifies the benefits to partnerships and communities of sharing data as well as highlighting the need to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and recognise political and organisational barriers to data exchange. The report suggests tools that can be used and uses a case study to show how to set up a mapping partnership.
Limited print copies are available via email request to steve.radburn@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk or the report can be downloaded in full from:
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/technology/technology01.htm
. and Tilley, N. (2000) Read, T
Not Rocket Science? Problem-solving and crime reduction,
Crime Reduction Research Series Paper 6,
London: Home Office
This report was produced as part of a thematic study of crime reduction undertaken by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). From questionnaires and visits to police forces, the report highlights a lack of evaluation, problems in data use, little quantitative analysis and other weaknesses and develops some general lessons for problem-solving practice. Three initiatives are described in detail as successes and weaknesses in problem solving are identified from initiatives deemed to be failures. The report concludes with a problem-solving checklist, which can be used to identify points for improvement within local problem-solving processes.
Problem-solving checklist:
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/learningzone/problem_solving_checklist.htm
Download the full report:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/prgpdfs/crrs06.pdf PDF 184 kb
. and Kitchen, Ted (2002) Schneider, Richard H
Planning for Crime Prevention: a transatlantic perspective.
London: Routledge. RTPI Library Series.
This book's primary objective is to encourage planners and other professionals to take the relationship between crime prevention and the design of the built environment more seriously and contribute to the push towards more evidence-driven approaches in this field. The book is broken down into 3 sections: context and key ideas, which looks at relationships and trends, history and major principles; policy and practice with case studies from both the USA and Britain; and comparison of the US and British approaches and key issues to point the way forward.
ISBN number: 0-415-24137-5 (paperback)
Price: £26.50
www.routledge.com
(2004 not yet published) Shaftoe, Henry
Preventing Crime: fact fallacies and the future
Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan
This book offers a series of facts, observations and opinions setting out how crime is controlled and explaining where various theories and policies fit in. It aims to introduce people from non-criminal justice professions to crime prevention and show how it relates to their roles in society. The book starts from the view that the use of the criminal justice system to control crime has reached saturation point, leading to the proposal that integrative and inclusive social policies are likely to be more effective in the long term. The book does not focus on one theoretical standpoint, it discusses a number of issues and theories to provide an overview of where crime prevention is now, and what is likely to happen in the future.
ISBN numbers:
0333921275 (hardback)
0333921283 (paperback - unlikely to be available first)
. (1998) Sherman, L.W et al
Preventing Crime: what works, what doesn't, what's promising
Washington DC: National Institute for Justice.
The NIJ published a summary of the full report from the University of Maryland's congressionally mandated study to review the effectiveness of over $32 billion US Department of Justice funds. The full report, which runs to around 600 pages, is available to download or search on the Internet, alongside the NIJ summary report at:
www.preventingcrime.org
The Maryland Report, also known as the Sherman report after one of the authors, evaluates crime prevention efforts in seven settings and was released in April 1997.
View the full report:
http://www.preventingcrime.org/report/index.htm
View the summary:
http://www.preventingcrime.org/171676.pdf PDF 97 kb
Note: Sherman L et al (2002) have also published a book titled:
Evidence-based crime Prevention.
London: Routledge
(2002) Tilley, N. Laycock, G
Working out what to do: evidence based crime reduction.
Crime Reduction Research Series Paper 11.
London: Home Office
This report aims to help police and local partnerships to improve their prospects for achievement in crime prevention through local problem-solving. From research mainly in the US and the UK, it discusses the use of six key concepts: aims, problem-specification, tactics, mechanisms, context and replication, and develops a framework through which performance can be improved. It uses a practical example of domestic burglary and provides two checklists to help problem-solvers to gauge how their processes and plans are shaping up.
Access more detail about the report and the checklists:
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/skills/skills14.htm
Download the full report:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/prgpdfs/crrs11.pdf PDF 286 kb
Last update: Monday, December 11, 2006