These measures can help re-engage those who have withdrawn from their communities out of fear or disinterest by helping people feel safer in working with others toward making their communities healthier. We are a nation of neighbors, and there are willing hands ready to help in communities all over the nation. We need them and more if we are to teach and reinforce basic crime prevention measures, help parents sharpen their skills to help children, and strengthen the fabric of neighborhoods. The tasks will often be challenging, even hard. But there is plenty of work to be done and there are ample rewards for success.
Crime prevention goes beyond locks, lights, and alarms.
It encompasses the range of activities that we undertake as individuals and communities both to reduce our immediate risks of crime and to build and sustain communities in which crime cannot flourish. In the early 19th century, Sir Robert Peel, founder of modern policing, said that crime prevention is the first duty of the police. It has become clear throughout the latter part of the 20th century that it is a duty shared by all of us. The advent of comprehensive, community-wide action planning for crime prevention has demonstrated the strength of involving every sector of the community in its safety. The survey acknowledges that crime and fear are different issues for community residents.