In situations where the state is weak, absent, and/or unwelcome, safety and security are differently conceived, and local knowledge, capacity, and resources take on more importance. The role of institutions within civil society becomes crucial in realizing bottom-up problem-solving that engages with key actors and agencies. Highlighted is the central importance of context in thinking about, imagining, and carrying out crime prevention. A broad concept of crime prevention that engages with urban safety through community organization, public health, urban regeneration and inclusive notions of human security, suggest the need to remove crime from the political agenda, the need to restrain the focus on policing, and the need to de-centralize criminology's narrow preoccupations. Figures, notes, and references