Crime Prevention

The ultimate goal of crime prevention is to reduce the risk of being a victim. In order to accomplish this effectively, it is important to remove opportunities for a criminal to take advantage of you or your property. You are attempting to prevent either victimization or criminalization by presenting an unattractive target to the criminal. This effort at removing opportunities is often referred to as target hardening. Target hardening can be as complex as installing a high tech alarm system or taking a self-defense course to something as simple as locking your door.

Another theme to the topic of crime prevention refers to the crime prevention triangle of risk, opportunity and desire. Crime prevention occurs when we try to reduce the risk of victimization while increasing the risk of being caught; we try to reduce the opportunities for victimization while increasing opportunities for fitting legitimately into society; and we try to reduce the desire to commit crimes while increasing the desire to be a contributor to the improvement of society.

Successful crime prevention efforts will promote a safer community by enhancing the perception of safety and the attitudes and behaviors that help people feel safe.