Experiences of Crime Prevention in Europe

The chapter presents a general overview of some issues related to crime prevention and its changes, focusing on the European context. After a brief analysis of the emerging interest toward new forms of crime prevention and their main changes in the past decades, the discussion then takes into consideration the most important typologies of crime prevention, conceptually originated in the criminological context but now well established also in the institutional and political ones. A comparative analysis of the development and changes of crime prevention in some European countries, of the emerging European models, and some fi nal remarks about current changes and open questions conclude the chapter. The fact that these changes about crime prevention have occurred, in recent decades in many Western democracies with, at least apparently, many common features raises interesting issues for a dynamic comparative perspective of crime prevention.