This book assesses the crime prevention impact of varying types of surveillance, including closed-circuit television and improved lighting.

Explores the impact of new technology on crime and its prevention, and on the criminal justice system.

The United Kingdom has more than 4.2 million public closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras-one for every fourteen citizens. Across the United States, hundreds of video surveillance systems are being installed in town centers, public transportation facilities, and schools at a cost exceeding $100 million annually. And now other Western countries have begun to experiment with CCTV to prevent crime in public places. In light of this expansion and the associated public expenditure, as well as pressing concerns about privacy rights, there is an acute need for an evidence-based approach to inform policy and practice. Drawing on the highest-quality research, criminologists Brandon C. Welsh and David P. Farrington assess the effectiveness and social costs of not only CCTV, but also of other important surveillance methods to prevent crime in public space, such as improved street lighting, security guards, place managers, and defensible space. Importantly, the book goes beyond the question of "Does it work?" and examines the specific conditions and contexts under which these surveillance methods may have an effect on crime as well as the mechanisms that bring about a reduction in crime. At a time when cities need cost-effective methods to fight crime and the public gradually awakens to the burdens of sacrificing their privacy and civil rights for security, Welsh and Farrington provide this timely and reliable guide to the most effective and non-invasive uses of surveillance to make public places safer from crime.

The rise of CCTV camera surveillance in Britain has been dramatic. Practically every major city now boasts a CCTV system aimed at, among other things, preventing, detecting and reducing the fear of crime. Increasingly these developments are mirrored in villages, shopping malls, residential estates, transport systems, schools and hospitals throughout the country. In short, for the majority of citizens it is now impossible to avoid being monitored and recorded as we move through public space. Surveillance, CCTV and Social Control represents the first systematic attempt to account for this phenomenon. It brings together leading researchers from the fields of anthropology, criminology, evaluation, geography, sociology and urban planning to explore the development, impact and implications of CCTV surveillance. Accordingly attention is directed to a number of key questions. How does CCTV fit with the trends of late modernity? Does CCTV reduce crime or merely shift it elsewhere? How should CCTV be evaluated? What is the significance of CCTV for women's safety? How adequate is the regulation of CCTV? In the light of recent technological developments what is the future of CCTV surveillance?

Crime prevention policy and practice is, on the whole, far from objective. Instead of being based on scientific evidence, the crime policy agenda is seemingly driven by political ideology, anecdotal evidence and programme trends. Evidence-Based Crime Prevention seeks to change this by comprehensively and rigorously assessing the existing scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of crime prevention programmes internationally. Reviewing more than 600 scientific evaluations of programmes intended to prevent crime in settings such as families, schools, labour markets and communities, this book grades programmes on their scientific validity using the 'scientific methods scale'. This collection, which brings together contributions from leading researchers in the field of crime prevention, will provide policy-makers, researchers and community leaders with an understandable source of information about what works, what does not work and what is promising in preventing crime.

This book reports the result of research carried out in a busy London police station on the role and impact of closed-circuit television (CCTV) in the management and surveillance of suspects - the most thorough example of the use of CCTV by the police in the world. It focuses on the use of CCTV in a very different environment to that in which its impact has previously been studied, and draws upon the analysis of CCTV footage, suspects' backgrounds and extensive interviewing of both police officers and suspects. The research is situated in the context of concerns about the human rights implications of the use of CCTV, and challenges criminological and social theory in its conceptualisation of the role of their police, their governance and the use of CCTV. It raises key questions about both the future of policing and the treatment of suspects in custody. A key theme of this book is the need to move away from a narrow focus on the negative, intrusive face of surveillance: as this study demonstrates, CCTV has another 'face' - one that potentially watches and protects. Both 'faces' need to be examined and analysed simultaneously in order to understand the impact and implications of electronic surveillance.

This book examines evidence-based crime prevention through the use of the rigorous methodology of systematic reviews. It brings together the leading scientific evidence on what works best for a wide range of interventions organized around four important domains in criminology: at-risk children, offenders, victims, and places. It is an indispensable guide to the leading scientific evidence on what works best to prevent crime.