Community-based crime prevention

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

The three papers in this panel discuss different approaches to the mobilisation of community resources to prevent crime. The first presentation by Abby Fagan and Sabrina Oesterle describes the Communities That Care approach to altering community processes by introducing data-driven, evidence-based interventions delivered through community coalitions. Importantly, these scholars also present the findings of a randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of CTC conducted in 24 communities in the United States. The second presentation, by Ross Homel and Tara McGee, describes the CREATE-ing Pathways to Child Wellbeing Project in Australia. The aim of CREATE is to strengthen the methods used by community agencies and schools to foster child wellbeing and reduce youth crime, school dropout and related problems. The authors describe a new method for measuring community-level child risk and protective factors scores for children aged 5-12 years, and present preliminary data for 149 communities in two states. Danielle Harris and Michael Sheath, focus on what is done in courts and then in the community to deal with child sex offenders, introducing the concept of quaternary prevention. The challenge is to ensure that legal orders, as they operate in communities, reduce rather than increase the risk of reoffending.

Sub Unit

• Area II. Perspectives on Crime / 2. Developmental and Life Course Perspectives

Division of Special Interests

• Division Session of Interest / Division of Communities and Place

• Division Session of Interest / Division of Developmental/Life-Course Criminology

• Division Session of Interest / Division of Experimental Criminology

Individual Presentations

• Communities That Care: An Effective Community-based Approach for Preventing Substance Use, Delinquency, and Violence - Abigail A. Fagan, University of Florida; Sabrina Oesterle, University of Washington

• A scalable Australian methodology for constructing community-level risk and protective factor profiles for children aged 5-12 years - Ross Homel, Griffith University; Tara Renae McGee, Griffith University

• Introducing the Notion of Quaternary Prevention for Child Sexual Abuse - Danielle A. Harris, Griffith University; Michael Sheath, Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Chair

• David P. Farrington, University of Cambridge