The Politics of Community Crime Prevention: The New Zealand Experience

Dr. Trevor Bradley has been employed at the Institite of Criminology, Victoria University since 2002. In additon to crime prevention and community safety his other research interests include plural policing and private security, youth crime and justice and the politics of crime and law and order.

In New Zealand, following a radical restructure of its machinery of state, new strategies of crime control have been developed. Under the banner of 'partnership' the state has enlisted local communities to take responsibility for the resolution of local crime problems. Understanding the genesis and development of this new approach represents the first of two key objectives. What were the main factors, particularly political and bureaucratic, driving the adoption of community crime prevention? In reply the book presents a political 'genealogy' of crime prevention tracing its political and bureaucratic history and its often politically contingent journey to the present. The second objective is to capture the local community experience with the key features of the new model and explores conceptualisations of community, crime prevention, partnership and local solutions to local problems. It is argued that adopting such local strategies does not reflect recent theoretical breakthroughs, evidence-based practice or a neutral scientific, apolitical fix for crime but a political strategy aimed at devolving responsibility to a broader cast of local 'partners'.