U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Committees of Prevention - The French Example

NCJ Number
88507
Journal
Annales Internationales de Criminologie Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: (1979-80) Pages: 49-86
Author(s)
G Chavanon; D Szabo; G Picca; J Verin; R Dumoulin
Date Published
1980
Length
37 pages
Annotation
A criminology workshop on the prevention of violence heard papers evaluating the recently established national system of crime prevention committees in France.
Abstract
The system was created in February 1978 and comprises a national committee presided over by the Prime Minister and regional committees chaired by special appointees. The system is to constitute a permanent, interministerial, interregional, and interdisciplinary institution for dealing with the violent crime issue. Its explicit duties are to pursue prevention-oriented research, to advance proposals for crime prevention approaches to be implemented at the local level, and to promote crime and prevention awareness among the citizenry. The first paper addresses the reasons for this French initiative -- principally the increasing fear of crime in the face of rising violent crime incidence. Another reviews the organizational structure of the committees and discusses the means by which their objectives should be met. A critique expresses misgivings about the conceptual framework of this endeavor and its practical constraints. Points of criticism relate to the accessibility of the expert membership required, the organizational parallelism with existing criminal justice agencies, the potential goal conflict among political and scientific aspects of the committees' activities, and financial limitations. Suggestions made include concentrating the committees' activities upon urban areas where the incidence of violence is the highest and targeting prevention programs to the youth population. Two footnotes are provided.