ABSTRACT
The concept of community safety emerged in the early 1980s as a progressive alternative to the narrowly focused situational techniques associated with the term 'crime prevention', which had been developed to respond to rising levels of recorded crime in the post-World War II period. While situational crime-prevention measures were designed to limit opportunities for criminal activity in particular localities, community safety offered a broader approach that looked beyond the confines of crime-focused interventions and towards the active promotion of safe neighbourhoods. During the 1980s and most of the 1990s, the community safety perspective was associated with a number of programmes that were largely welfarist in their approach. They combined urban regeneration projects with economic development, services for young people and community-building projects. While the vocabulary of community safety persisted in some areas, existing community safety partnerships were dissolved and replaced by the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) required by statute.
