ABSTRACT
As discussed in Chapter 3, there is no one simple cause for violence. There are, however, risk and resilience factors that operate at different scales. These include a culture of fear and tolerance of violence, as opposed to a culture of mutual respect and alternatives to violence; isolation from, or access to, resources that assist in building less violent lives; and powerlessness or power to change one's circumstances. Thus, there is no single intervention that will work to prevent any or all forms of violence. Instead, components of successful community safety include policies, programmes and practices. A policy is a plan of action, usually developed by a government, to tackle a problem that has been defined as a political priority. Examples of policies discussed in Chapter 5 include reviewing all development applications for community safety concerns in Toronto or legalizing land tenure in Papua New Guinea. A programme is a particular time-limited action undertaken by government, non-profit organizations or the private sector that often derives from a policy. Examples of programmes in Chapter 5 include training police and judges in Papua New Guinea to prioritize some of the determinants of severe violence in that country, such as gun control, or undertaking a series of women's safety audits in London, Bristol and Manchester as part of regeneration processes occurring in those cities. A practice is a customary way of operation or behaviour, and can be undertaken at any scale, from the individual to the global. For instance, counting to ten when you are very angry would be an individual practice, and police in Cardiff regularly sharing information on reported violent incidents with licensed drinking establishments is an institutional practice.
