ABSTRACT
Situational prevention is a radically different approach to crime control. It is focused on the immediate environments in which crimes occur, rather than upon those committing criminal acts. It seeks to forestall the occurrence of crime, rather than to detect and sanction offenders. It seeks, not to eliminate criminal or delinquent tendencies, but merely to reduce opportunities for crime. Central to this enterprise is not the criminal justice system, but a host of public and private organizations and agencies - schools, hospitals, transport systems, shops and malls, manufacturing businesses and phone companies, banks and insurance companies, local parks and entertainment facilities, pubs and parking lots - whose services, products and modes of operation spawn opportunities for a vast range of different crimes. Proceeding from an analysis of the circumstances giving rise to specific
kinds of crime, situational prevention introduces discrete managerial and environmental change to make criminal action more difficult and risky, less rewarding and less excusable. Dozens of documented examples now exist of successful situational prevention involving such measures as sur veillance cameras for subway systems and parking facilities, defensible space architecture in public housing, target hardening of apartment blocks and individual residences, electronic access for cars and for telephone systems, street closures and traffic schemes for residential neighbour hoods, alcohol controls at festivals and sporting fixtures, training in con flict management for publicans and bouncers, and improved stocktaking and record-keeping procedures in warehouse and retail outlets (cf. Clarke, 1995).
