Rethinking the National Crime Prevention Strategy in Canada

• In Event: Designing Environmental Approaches to Crime Policy: Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

This study examines the work undertaken by Canada’s National Crime Prevention Centre (NCPC) under the auspices of Public Safety Canada. NCPC operates with a social development approach to preventing crime, focusing largely on projects working with at-risk youth. It is suggested that this appears to be a rather narrow definition of crime prevention and that it may not necessarily act as an optimal strategy. In particular, the concepts, coverage and evidence relating to such social development programs appear limited. In addition, there is an array of evidence-based situational crime prevention (SCP) strategies from which Canada might benefit. SCP has a history of success in designing-out a wide range of crimes from credit card fraud to car theft and burglary. It is proposed that, at minimum, a more inclusive National Crime Prevention Strategy for Canada, that incorporates SCP, would produce a significant net benefit.

Authors

• Tarah Hodgkinson, Simon Fraser University

• Graham Farrell, Simon Fraser University