Locally oriented crime prevention and the "partnership approach" - Politics, practices and prospects

Why have multi-agency or "partnership" approaches to mime prevention and co mmunity 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 seri es of locally based crime prevention initiatives which have attempted to co ntract federal regional and local governments to a range of social and poli ce oriented mime prevention endeavors. Traces the development of the Belgia n crime prevention contracts and examines the difficulties experienced with "multi-agency crime prevention" and suggests that much of the political rh etoric in Belgium calling for local, community and intersectorial "partners hips" has, like several other countries including England and Wales, Canada Australia and New Zealand, lacked clear practical expression. However, som e promising initiatives indicate that this prevention approach may be capab le of producing effective mime prevention and community safety outcomes. Fu rther research is needed to describe these initiatives and analyze the cond itions under which they are developed.