Mittuniversitetet

The first objective of this study was to explore how community members perceive crime and crime prevention strategies, taken by police and municipality at a problem-area. The second objective was to explore how their perceptions of crime prevention strategies incorporate situational crime prevention theory. To get valuable information, eleven community members who worked in connection to the problem-area were interviewed. The results showed that the participants perceived drug dealing, alcohol users and youths meeting up at the location as the main problems. It got clear that the participants perceived police intervention as essential to prevent crime and disorder. Security guard presence also prevented crime and disorder, but to increase the feeling of safety it was suggested to expand the surveillance in evenings. The preventive effect of surveillance cameras was inconsistent among the participants. Some doubted their effect while others believed that they created safety. The result also reflected that the participants perception of crime prevention strategies incorporated some features of situational crime prevention theory. Target hardening, employee surveillance and environmental management were more or less a part of the participants perception of crime prevention strategies.