Why have multi‐agency or “partnership” approaches to crime prevention and community safety been reported internationally with unfavorable results? Can groups and individuals from disparate government and non‐government sectors work together to reduce or prevent crime? This article will address these and other questions by using developments in Belgium as its case study. In 1992, Belgium launched its “safety and crime prevention contracts”, a series of locally based crime prevention initiatives which have attempted to contract federal, regional and local governments to a range of social and police oriented crime prevention endeavors. Traces the development of the Belgian crime prevention contracts and examines the difficulties experienced with “multi‐agency crime prevention” and suggests that much of the political rhetoric in Belgium calling for local, community and intersectorial “partnerships” has, like several other countries including England and Wales, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, lacked clear practical expression. However, some promising initiatives indicate that this prevention approach may be capable of producing effective crime prevention and community safety outcomes. Further research is needed to describe these initiatives and analyze the conditions under which they are developed.
Belgium has experienced widespread change in its public sector.The author describes the structure of community safety provision that has resulted. This article describes research conducted in 4 Belgian cities. It argues for a conflict-accepting model of partnership where the differing philosophies of the constituent agencies are accepted and where human creativity is respected.Such a model will reduce the problem of differential power relations that can lead to the exclusion of some social groups.
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