Holding the line: the sustainability of police involvement in crime prevention

In this chapter, we examine the role of the police in crime prevention in the UK, how it has developed over the years, the position that it has reached currently and where it should be heading in the future. We begin by defining what is meant by crime prevention, its relationship to similar functions, such as ‘crime reduction’, ‘crime control’ and ‘community safety’, and its dependence on law enforcement processes and the Criminal Justice System (CJS) which provides the very foundation underpinning the preventive process. We distinguish between enforcement based ‘judicial’ prevention in which the police service is heavily involved and the broader notion of ‘civil’ crime prevention to which the police make a valuable contribution through mobilising, or working in partnership with, local communities, statutory agencies, voluntary groups and the private sector.