Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
A Safe City approach is based on several foundational features, especially the
requirement to support policies for the long term and the provision of adequate
finance as well as skilled personnel who adopt proactive measures rather than just
reacting to the crime events. Many of the new policies that have been adopted under
the Safe City banner are based on improvements to the existing crime detection
and punishment system. The use of new technologies in laboratory work and crime
scene advances and analyses of information in laboratory work are important. But
so are the new computer-based procedures to map crime incidence and to quickly
concentrate police forces in these areas to investigate crimes and to deter future
crime acts in these areas. Making the police more visible and with greater public
access and accountability is also vital. In addition organizational changes in the
judicial system are also helping to create more effective systems. However there
are also many ways of changing the urban environment in order to deter crime, as
well as modifying criminal behaviours or predispositions to reduce crime events.
In this latter case it seems important to focus on rehabilitative measures not only
punitive actions, especially when first offenders are involved, and to find ways of
reducing the rates of recidivism. In both categories a large number of policies have
been pursued but not always with success. This is why the new trend of empiri-
cally testing the utility of particular actions is a crucial approach. It allows crime
prevention and crime fighting agencies to adopt policies that have been shown to be
successful elsewhere. The ability to learn from the experience of other jurisdictions,
an ability that has been intensified by the speed of communication in sharing ideas,
provides another example of the way that new policies adopted in cities are using
the experience of others to solve, or at least mitigate, their problems—in this case
crime. especially in crime-ridden cities in the developing world.
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