We elect officials in hopes that they will make our communities safer, yet their widely-endorsed law enforcement strategies have little effect on crime rates. Active crime prevention must take into account the diversity of crimes and criminals. High-quality evaluation research designs are needed to convince scholars, policy makers, and practitioners about the effectiveness of crime prevention techniques. Building a Safer Society, the most comprehensive exposition of research and experience concerning crime prevention ever published, offers a new conceptualization of the subject incorporating developmental, community, situational and law enforcement approaches. This timely collection will especially interest scholars in law, criminal justice, public policy and public administration.

The eight essays in this volume provide comprehensive, up-to-date summaries of crossnational crime trends in Australia, Canada, England, Wales, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. This book is an essential resource for sociologists, psychologists, criminal lawyers, justice scholars, and political scientists who seek an interdisciplinary approach to crime, its causes, and its repercussions. The contributors to this volume are Marcelo F. Aebi, Catrien C. J. H. Bijleveld, Alfred Blumstein, Carlos Carcach, Philip J. Cook, Mark Irving, Darrick Jolliffe, Nataliya Khmilevska, Martin Killias, Philippe Lamon, Patrick A. Langan, Asheley Van Ness, Paul R. Smit, David J. Smith, and Brandon Welsh.