EUKN - United Kingdom - Problem-solving street crime: practical lessons from the Street Crime Initiative

Problem-solving street crime: practical lessons from the Street Crime Initiative

Introduction

The Street Crime Initiative (SCI) involves a wide range of agencies working in partnership, in 10 selected police force areas, delivering a programme of measures developed through a crime reduction group chaired by the Prime Minister.

Problem

The initiative was launched in response to sustained and accelerating increases in annual levels of robbery in England and Wales. The term street crime is used to cover both robbery and snatch theft.

Description

This practice guide:

provides practical guidance on what managers and practitioners can do to reduce street crime;
pulls together the experience of the Street Crime Initiative and previous relevant research;
briefly lays out some well-established principles and methods of crime control and problem-solving;
addresses issues of evaluation and presents a problem-solving checklist; and
presents a series of scenarios found specifically for street crime problems, illustrating responses that have already enjoyed some success or show promise.

Approach

Lessons from the SCI are identified to guide practice in relation to:

developing a strategy and assessing outcomes; and
dealing with specific types of crime, including student robbery, robbery of school-aged children, robbery at cash machines, crime on public transport, robbery linked to problem drug use, bag snatches and dips from elderly women, commercial robbery, mobile phone robbery, and false reporting.

Results

The first aim of the initiative was to bring robbery ‘under control’ within six months, and figures published in October 2002 show that there were ten per cent fewer robberies in the ten SCI forces in the six months from April to September 2002 compared to the previous year. Two years into the initiative, figures for the year 2003/4 show that robbery is 24 per cent lower in the ten forces than it was in 2001/2 and 17 per cent lower across England and Wales as a whole.

Beneficiaries

People, businesses and police forces in areas of high street crime.

Financing

Funding of £67 million came from central government, and the project has involved partnerships between many government departments. Funding for individual projects varied, e.g. £75 to mark a box on the floor outside a cash machine.

Contact info

Street Crime Action Team, Home Office
Ms Clare Checksfield, tel. +44 870 000 1585

Project start date

01/03/2002

Planned end date

01/11/2004

Links

UK government's thematic website on reducing crime Home Office

Problem-solving street crime: practical lessons from the Street Crime Initiative (PDF, Eng, 899KB)

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Security & crime prevention > Anti-crime policy

Keywords

Burglary & theft