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Reducing urban crime and violence2492 as an important part of this process, four of the sixgroupings of policy responses to crime and violence (seethe previous section on ‘Scope for the continuing developmentof key policy responses’) have attractedparticular interest: enhancing urban safety and securitythrough effective urban planning, design andgovernance; community-based approaches; reducingrisk factors; and strengthening social capital;3 the move away from ad hoc initiatives and towards moreprogrammatic approaches encompassing some or all ofthe approaches described above, backed by broad strategiesand detailed understanding of the issues on theground;4 the use of the partnership mechanism as a key vehiclefor delivering programmes of this nature;5 the growing recognition of the need to adapt solutionsto local circumstances, rather than to borrow uncriticallyfrom elsewhere;6 the growing acceptance of the need for honest evaluationof initiatives and for publicizing such material.Before undertaking this task, however, it is important tomake the point that it does not follow automatically that justbecause something has been identified as a policy trend, it isinherently desirable. There are several reasons whysomething might become a ‘policy trend’, one of which isthe process of emulating something else in the desperatesearch to find some action to undertake. Another is theobservable point that some policy ideas do become fashionablefor a period of time. Thus, in order to assess the meritsor otherwise of these trends in relation to particular circumstances,the following discussion includes a brief analysis ofthe strengths and limitations of each trend in question.Broadening the range of responses toproblems of crime and violenceThe first trend identified is the move away from the traditionalreliance on the police and the criminal justice systemtowards the idea that crime and violence are complexphenomena that require broad-based responses. For ease ofreference, these added approaches will be referred to asnon-traditional. The reasons for this policy trend arecomplex; but two related lines of argument are outlinedhere.The first is that in many countries the traditionalapproaches were seen as increasingly struggling to tacklecrime and violence effectively in societies that were becomingmore complex and less reliant on historic family andcommunity structures. Thus, there has been a growing needover the last 30 or 40 years to explore other approaches thatcould complement the work of the police and the criminaljustice system. This does not imply that traditional work hasremained largely unchanged during the time in which otherapproaches have been explored, although there have beencriticisms about inflexibility and slowness to change in thiscontext. The growing police interest in CPTED in some partsof the world and the increasing adoption of community policingmodels can both be seen as illustrations of adaptations ofthis kind that have been taking place. Nevertheless, itbecame clear that this search for alternative ways of tacklingwhat was widely seen as an increasingly sophisticatedproblem was not confined to changes within the police andthe criminal justice system, but also needed to encompassother areas outside of them.The second reason why this policy trend has takenroot is that it has been recognized that the nature of theresponse must be congruent with the nature of the problem.Thus, the growing recognition that criminal behaviour andopportunity are often a function of economic and socialcircumstances, as well as the recognition that technologicaldevelopments have assisted criminals, as well as the processof fighting crime, have together seen the development ofmore broadly based approaches to tackling crime andviolence.The main strength of this approach of broadening therange of responses is that it appears to be appropriate to thetask in hand. To use a simple example: if it is, indeed, thecase that the likelihood that young people will embark upona life of crime is related at least in part to both educationalopportunity and to effective processes of transition betweenschool and work, then measures that seek to address theseissues head on are more likely to be successful than thetraditional work of the police and the criminal justiceservices. A related strength is that, by definition, broadeningthe range of responses to problems of crime and violencealso extends the numbers of people and groups who areinvolved in processes of this kind, and thus adds to both therange of possible responses they might identify and to thenumbers of people who are prepared to participate in implementingchosen actions.These are real strengths, although they also representchallenges in the sense that the process of ensuring thatthese theoretical advantages are always captured, inpractice, is a complex one in terms of issues such as forms ofpartnership operation, seeking agreements for all affectedparties, including local communities, and effective coordination.The main weakness of this approach is that it candeflect attention from measures to ensure that the policeand the criminal justice system are fully ‘fit for purpose’;indeed, it can be seen as downgrading the importance ofthese traditional services in the ever widening search foralternatives. It is very important that the approach adopteddoes not see this as being about alternatives to efficient andeffective police and criminal justice systems, but rather seesit as being about the identification of complementary activitiesthat are simply more appropriate for the particularchallenge being addressed than expecting the police and thecriminal justice system to do what they are not primarilydesigned to do.Available evidence from the experience of Africancities in establishing Safer Cities projects indicates thattackling problems in these ‘traditional’ areas of the policeand the criminal justice systems is vitally important, and thatit is necessary to look for, and to encourage, change in areaswhere existing practices may be contributing to the problemrather than its solution. 27 Two very difficult illustrations ofthis point are the fight against corruption and the need toIn many countriesthe traditionalapproaches wereseen as increasinglystruggling to tacklecrime and violenceeffectively insocieties that werebecoming morecomplex and lessreliant on historicfamily and communitystructures