Taking Fear of Crime Seriously: The Tasmanian Approach to Community Crime Prevention

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Abstract
Despite having little serious crime in the form of homicide or sexual assault, the state of Tasmania in Australia has enough crime in terms of assault, burglary, and public order offenses to generate a reasonably high level of fear of crime. The Tasmanian government has embarked upon a novel attempt to address simultaneously both crime and fear of crime through a strategy of crime prevention that focuses on a combination of restorative justice and community enhancement. This positive, developmental approach to crime prevention is fundamentally integrative and stands in sharp contrast to the punishment-oriented policies currently popular in many American jurisdictions. Unlike the Tasmanian proposals, approaches such as “three strikes and you're out” leave the fear of crime problem unresolved, leading to a continuous upward spiral of punitiveness.

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