ABSTRACT
The goal of crime prevention is to reduce the amount of criminal activity and the harm that it causes along with the number of criminal offenders and their victims. Crime prevention strategies are used by individuals, communities, businesses and government to target those factors that are known to cause crime in order to facilitate a reduction in crime. This chapter analyses some of the ways in which psychology can contribute to reducing crime. It discusses how crime can be prevented by altering the environment, intervening with people at risk of involvement in criminal activity and by helping to rehabilitate offenders. The chapter details three programmes: anger management, the core sex offender treatment programme and the reasoning and rehabilitation programme. An example of a community-based programme is the 'Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America', a national mentoring organisation founded in 1904 dedicated to improving the life chances of adolescents at risk of offending.
