ABSTRACT
Introduction For most of the twentieth century, the dominant mode of thinking in Western democracies, or ‘neoliberal states’,1 has been that the police could solve crime and disorder through a reactive approach. In the last two decades, however, this thinking has shifted to the belief that it is far more effective for proactive steps to be taken prior to crime occurring in the first place. This was not a new idea, but rather echoes the policing style proposed in ‘The Instructions and Police Orders for 1829-30’, largely attributed to Robert Peel, during the birth of the professional police in England and Wales:
It should be understood at the outset, that the object to be attained is ‘the prevention of crime’. To this end every effort of the police is to be directed. The security of persons and property, the preservation of the public tranquillity, and all the other objects of a police establishment, will thus be better effected than by the detection and punishment of the offender after he has succeeded in committing the crime.
