ABSTRACT
Now that we have a better sense of the prevalence of violence and insecurity, theories on their causes, their consequences and their costs, and what works to prevent violence and insecurity, we can turn to the ‘how to’ of community safety and violence prevention in the next three chapters. The Sherman report (Sherman et al, 1997) asserts the importance of neighbourhood and local government coordination in effective crime prevention within a report that focuses on the national role in funding and disseminating good practice. The United Nations has produced guidelines for urban crime prevention that stress the importance of coordinated action at the local governance level (UN Economic and Social Council, 2002). The World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Community Safety defines community safety as preventive action ‘led by the community’ (WHO Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion, 2007). In contrast, the WHO's Preventing Violence: A Guide to Implementing the Recommendations of the World Report on Violence and Health (Butchart et al, 2004) emphasizes coordinated national plans of action to prevent interpersonal violence, and both the WHO and UN-Habitat have global and regional campaigns on community safety and violence prevention. Why is coordinated action at various levels of governance considered so important in community safety? What are the relationships between coordination at these five different scales of governance: neighbourhood, city, nation, region and globe? Who are the key actors in coordinated action at various scales and who are the potential leaders? And how exactly can coordinated action lead to an integrated and gendered approach to preventing violence in both the public and private spheres?
