The turns in social crime prevention in Belgian crime prevention policy since the 1980s

Patrick Hebberecht shows how in Belgium, social crime prevention is rooted in initiatives implemented inside and ourtside the criminal justice system from the end of the 19th century until the 1970s, under the influence of the 'social defence' theory. Initiated by the police, a 'preventive turn' took place in Belgium in the mid 1980s. In his first section, he positions social crime prevention policy within the national/federal crime prevention policy since 1985. For a good understanding of the evolution of (social) crime prevention policy, the period from 1985 until the present is subdivided into four periods, according to the coalitions of political parties governing at a national/federal level. Due to a lack of official reports and documents, and of scientific research results about local social crime prevention policy in the different Belgian cities and councils, he restricts his analysis of the place of social crime prevention within a local crime prevention policy to the city of Ghent, in his second section. Finally, he contextualises Belgian developments in social crime prevention during the last thirty years in the institutional framework, the organisation of the police forces and the political ideologies in Belgium, influenced by neo-liberal globalisation and confronted with a crisis of the nation state