ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the idea that most federal crime initiatives tend to be primarily about punishing criminals and those that involve community members tend to focus on a narrow, opportunity-reduction version of crime prevention. It illustrates the punitive and symbolic nature of crime control at the federal level and the rise of community involvement in crime prevention. The chapter suggests that despite President Johnson's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, which advocated for broad social programs to address the social conditions that might give rise to crime, federal crime control initiatives tended to focus more on punishment and incarceration than broad preventive strategies. It presents three models for understanding different conceptions of crime prevention and the role of citizens in addressing local crime problems: opportunity-reduction, order-maintenance and community-centered models. The chapter concludes by illustrating that the first two models are most prominent in public discourse on community crime control.
