Reconsidering sustainability: some implications for community-based crime prevention

This paper examines the experiences of a community that has successfully sustained its crime prevention through social development activities for over a decade. It explores how a broad philosophical approach to sustainability can be applied to community-based initiatives such as crime prevention. In this regard, traditional situational crime prevention strategies are compared with crime prevention through social development. The evidence from the case study community illustrates the importance for sustainability of such factors as bottom-up decisionmaking, flexibility, inclusion and integration. The findings suggest that crime prevention through social development provides a framework for developing sustainable community-based crime prevention activities. The implications of these findings are considered with respect to the sustainability of other community-based initiatives.