EUCPN Toolbox Series. No. 3. Evaluation of crime prevention initiatives.

One of the main goals of the EUCPN is to support crime prevention activities at the national and the local level. There are numerous examples of well thought of and inspiring local programmes and projects set up to prevent crime and improve the quality of life within certain neighbourhoods. In order to determine whether such a programme is effectively implemented and reaches its goals, evaluation should be an essential part of the programme planning. In reality, however, the practice of evaluating crime prevention initiatives is often lacking or shows deficiencies in its method and quality. Such shortcomings do not stem from the reluctance or incompetence of programme managers but rather are a result of many small or large barriers with which they are often faced in day-to-day practice. This toolbox is developed to assist persons engaged in evaluation who have limited resources(human, financial, material), who often lack the internal expertise to conduct a robust evaluation or who have limited access to information and external support. It aims to give the reader more insight into the evaluation of crime prevention initiatives and to provide a ‘minimum standard’ of knowledge and skills to those who are (about to be) involved in programme evaluation of small scale community-based crime prevention initiatives