One of the key criminological features of the last decade or so has been the emergence of the term ‘Community Safety’ and its associated focus upon the notion of ‘community’ and how to prevent, or at least control anti-social and nuisance behaviour that can be so disruptive at the local level.
Recently in St. Kitts-Nevis, our new Chief has been using the term ‘Community Safety’ and, with the High Command of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, he has implemented certain measurers in order to make the communities in St. Kitts-Nevis safer for both citizens and visitors alike.
However, I believe that Community Safety is often invoked in a broad sense, encompassing issues that are wider than just a concern for crime prevention or reduction and instead placing emphasis on the community and various agencies working together in partnership, not merely relying on traditional police responses to crime.
Public policies by the government have tended to define contemporary crime and disorder problems in rather simplistic terms as the breakdown of informal control, moral decline and a collapse in social capital. Recently, they have introduced a bill that was debated and passed in Parliament, which allows citizens to become ‘Island Constables’. Associated with this is a concomitant belief in the civilizing and crime-preventive effects of ‘cohesive communities’ with strong bonds and a tendency to conflate the security needs of all urban areas in St. Kitts-Nevis as uniformly, demanding the reassertion of increased visible policing.
Some persons in the opposition indicated that the relative longevity of the concept of Community Safety might mean that it is likely to survive in an era of a unity government under which many aspects of policy will be fundamentally re-think. While political commitment to Community Safety might remain, the impact of austerity measures on local initiatives is likely to be significant in our Federation.
Crawford (1998) argued that Community Safety is seen as reflecting a broader approach to crime prevention and it evaluation. Through reference to the term ‘safety’, it encompasses not just crime, narrowly defined, but the wider physical and social impact of crime and the anxieties that derive from it. I believe that in St. Kits-Nevis the term breaks away from traditional assumptions about crime prevention and it being the sole responsibility of our criminal justice system.
I also believe that Community Safety implies that crime is intrinsically related to wider social problems. One could readily agree that crime is rarely the only problem within the community, particularly high crime communities such as Cayon. Hence, measures to address crime also need to address these wider issues. It also acknowledges that crime is the outcome of a variety of influences that is embodied in the principle of ‘multiple aetiology’.
Lastly, Community Safety emphasises that action to prevent crime should be local. That is, the community is seen as a locus of informal social control and represents an important force in reducing crime. Thus, Community Safety is delivered through a ‘partnership’ approach drawing together a variety of organisations in St. Kitts-Nevis from the public, private and voluntary sectors, as well as relevant community groups working together for the safety and security of our communities that are wider than issues that just concern crime prevention.
