Introduction: Analysis for Crime Prevention

The collected papers in this volume address analysis for crime prevention. Analysis for crime prevention differs from analysis of crime prevention. Analysis of crime prevention stands back from and comments on what has been and is being done to try to prevent crime. It may be concerned with effectiveness as part of a broad agenda of social reform, but is not concerned directly to inform efforts to identify and deal with specific crime threats at specific times and places (see, for example, Crawford, 1997, Gilling, 1997, Garland, 2001, and Hughes, 1998). Analysis for crime prevention is oriented directly to the formulation of preventive strategies. It does so in three ways. First, it identifies concentrations of either crime as a whole or single offences where there is a potential yield from preventive efforts. Second, it helps find the most efficient, effective and, perhaps, equitable means of prevention. Third, it can help forecast likely future crime problems with a view to developing preemptive strategies (Rogerson et al., 2000; Pease, 1997). All the chapters included in this collection aim in one way or another to improve the conduct and use of analysis for crime prevention. Some are based in relatively "pure" research. Others turn on involvement in practical work. The relationship between research and practice is by no means straightforward, as various of the following chapters indicate. The application of established research findings in new settings is often highly problematic. Moreover, general patterns and their explanation have often emerged from scientific work attempting to target specific practical problems — "pure" research has not always come first in crime prevention or, for that matter, as we shall see in an exemplary case, in other fields either. The following sections introduce and set in context contributions to this volume, that identify general crime patterns, that apply research in practical