Effective crime prevention interventions for implementation by local government

Councils are responsible for a range of services related to crime prevention, including managing public space and building design, providing a range of community services and developing policies that affect local businesses. More recently, there has been increasing pressure on local government to contribute to the delivery of a variety of social services and to engage in social planning.

This comprehensive report is a collaboration between the Crime Prevention Division of the NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice, and the AIC. It is a large-scale systematic review of interventions to prevent a number of crime types identified as priority areas for local councils in New South Wales. Offences such as non-domestic violence related assault; break and enter; car theft; retail theft and malicious damage were reviewed against specific crime prevention methods.

The AIC provided the NSW CPD with a summary of the evidence in support of interventions for each priority crime type. A number of preferred intervention types were selected that could be implemented by local councils, with the support of the CPD, in areas with a significant crime problem.

This study has led to a series of handbooks to assist local government to select, adapt and implement the preferred interventions.