ABSTRACT
This article examines the suggestion that crime control policy should emulate environmental regulation by concentrating on the alteration of fundamental incentive structures. The 'greening' of policy can occur in a number of different ways. A dominant model of environmental regulation is skewed towards government and technicist in orientation. This model does not consider the diversity of incentives that incite action and runs up against a commitment problem. An alternative model of regulation, derived from the grid-group theory of Mary Douglas, is described and its promise for inspiring a culturally plural model of crime control that is not dominated by the state is explored. These suggestions are substantiated by examining recent debates concerning policing and crime prevention and the progress of the Crime and Disorder Act in England and Wales, which might point to an altered role for the state in the provision of security.
