Is an approach in which community organization efforts eliminate or reduce crime before police involvement becomes necessary?

In 1829, Sir Robert Peel established the London Metropolitan Police Force. He became known as the “Father of Modern Policing,” and his commissioners established a list of policing principles that remain as crucial and urgent today as they were two centuries ago. They contain three core ideas and nine principles.

9 Policing Principles

1. To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.
2. To recognize always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behavior, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.
3. To recognize always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing cooperation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.
4. To recognize always that the extent to which the cooperation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.
5. To seek and preserve public favor, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humor, and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.
6. To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public cooperation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.
7. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
8. To recognize always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.
9. To recognize always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.

3 CORE IDEAS

• The goal is preventing crime, not catching criminals. If the police stop crime before it happens, we don’t have to punish citizens or suppress their rights. An effective police department doesn’t have high arrest stats; its community has low crime rates.
• The key to preventing crime is earning public support. Every community member must share the responsibility of preventing crime, as if they were all volunteer members of the force. They will only accept this responsibility if the community supports and trusts the police.
• The police earn public support by respecting community principles. Winning public approval requires hard work to build reputation: enforcing the laws impartially, hiring officers who represent and understand the community, and using force only as a last resort.

"Prevention is the first imperative of justice " (United Nations document S/2004/616, para. 4)

"Crime Prevention comprises strategies and measures that seek to reduce the risk of crimes occurring, and their potential harmful effects on individuals and society, including fear of crime, by intervening to influence their multiple causes." Guidelines for the Prevention of Crime ECOSOC Resolution 2002/13, Annex.

Crime prevention is a multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary, and integrated endeavour.

The introduction to the Guidelines for the Prevention of Crime indicates that: "There is clear evidence that well-planned crime prevention strategies not only prevent crime and victimization, but also promote community safety and contribute to sustainable development of countries. Effective, responsible crime prevention enhances the quality of life of all citizens. It has long-term benefits in terms of reducing the costs associated with the formal criminal justice system, as well as other social costs that result from crime." (Economic and Social Council resolution 2002/13, annex), (above) .

In 2005, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), in its Resolution 2005/22 Action to promote effective crime prevention, requested UNODC to achieve a balanced approach between crime prevention and criminal justice responses, and to further develop initiatives on crime prevention. In 2008, ECOSOC, in its Resolution 2008/24 Strengthening prevention of urban crime: an integrated approach, encouraged member states to integrate crime prevention considerations into all relevant social and economic policies and programmes in order to effectively address the conditions in which crime and violence can emerge.

In accordance with the United Nations standards and norms on crime prevention, UNODC actively contributes to international and national efforts to prevent and control crime. UNODC assists requesting member states to enhance the capacity of key crime prevention actors and systems to operate more effectively, with particular attention to vulnerable groups. To that effect,  UNODC works in close partnership with national and regional counterparts, other UN agencies, civil society organizations, academia, the business sector, and other key actors. UNODC also focuses on the development of specialized tools and manuals in support of policy making and the delivery of technical assistance.

Recognizing the multiple causes of crime and as the custodian of the United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice, UNODC promotes strategies, plans, and programmes, which are multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary, and which favour civil society participation. Such strategies and action plans are underpinned by the basic principles for the prevention of crime (Guidelines for the Prevention of Crime, ECOSOC Resolution 2002/13, Annex) (above):

• Government leadership at all levels is required to create and maintain an institutional framework for effective crime prevention.
• Socio-economic development and inclusion refer to the need to integrate crime prevention into relevant social and economic policies, and to focus on the social integration of at-risk communities, children, families, and youth.
• Cooperation and partnerships between government ministries and authorities, civil society organizations, the business sector, and private citizens are required given the wide-ranging nature of the causes of crime and the skills and responsibilities required to address them.
• Sustainability and accountability can only be achieved if adequate resources to establish and sustain programmes and evaluation are made available, and clear accountability for funding, implementation, evaluation and achievement of planned results is established.
• Knowledge base strategies, policies and programmes need to be based on a broad multidisciplinary foundation of knowledge, together with evidence regarding specific crime problems, their causes, and proven practices.
• Human rights/rule of law/culture of lawfulness the rule of law and those human rights which are recognized in international instruments to which Member States are parties must be respected in all aspects of crime prevention, and a culture of lawfulness actively promoted.
• Interdependency refers to the need for national crime prevention diagnoses and strategies to take into account, where appropriate, the links between local criminal problems and international organized crime.
• The principle of differentiation calls for crime prevention strategies to pay due regard to the different needs of men and women and consider the special needs of vulnerable members of society.

Technical Assistance

UNODC offers assistance:

• Promoting interventions based on knowledge gained through victimization surveys and crime statistics
• Providing advisory services for the development and implementation of regional and national strategies and action plans
• Supporting sector-specific programmes and projects with a particular focus on at-risk youth groups and the prevention of re-offending

For more detailed information on UNODC's work on crime prevention, please follow the links below:

• Tools and publications
• E-Lecture on "Sport, violence and crime prevention"
• Crime Prevention Technical Assistance
• Crime Prevention Projects
• Crime Prevention Inter-agency Coordination

See also:

• UN standards and norms in crime prevention at your fingertips
• International Centre for the Prevention of Crime
• Second Competition of Best Crime Prevention Practices in Latin America and the Caribbean English     Spanish

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