Crime Prevention, Security and Community Safety Using the 5is Framework

In crime prevention, security and community safety, attempts to replicate individual `success-story' projects often end in implementation failure. And the effort remains divided - between situational and offender-oriented interventions, between cause, risk factor and problem-oriented approaches and between justice/law enforcement and `civil' prevention. The field is in poor shape to control everyday crime problems, let alone the challenges of terrorism, organised crime and techno-crime where preventers must continually out-innovate offenders; nor the upcoming disruptions from financial disarray and climate change

This book seeks to change that. It diagnoses underperformance in the way practice knowledge is captured and transferred, fostering cookbook copying and stifling innovation; in concepts and terminology inadequate as tools for thinking and communication; and in the adoption of over-simple frameworks which, though useful for a quick start, soon constrain practitioners. It develops a specification for a fit-for-purpose knowledge management framework, confronting complexities of real-life prevention and helping practitioners select prior practice, replicate and innovate. Finally, it introduces a process-based framework, 5Is, and related definitions and models of causation and intervention, designed to meet the specification. The book lays foundations for a working practical system of knowledge management and process evaluation that complements and extends the progress made in impact evaluation.

Paul Ekblom is Professor at the Design Against Crime Research Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, UK. He combines work on design with practical frameworks for general prevention.