Active Communities
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National Crime Prevention Australia has published 'Guidelines for Evaluating Community Crime Projects'. It is designed to give assistance and direction for those managing small, community-based crime prevention projects and programs.
Title: Guidelines for Evaluating Community Crime Projects
Author: National Crime Prevention Australia
Date published: December 2003
Number of pages: 69
Divided into 7 stages, the guidelines provides information on how to plan, manage and/or commission an evaluation process. Each stage undertaken during the evaluation is set out in an easy-to-read, step-by-step format including evaluation planning sheets.
The guidelines have been designed for people managing small, community-based crime prevention projects, and anyone else involved in crime prevention projects, including staff, participants, community groups and funding agencies.
The 7 guideline evaluation stages are:
Introduction
Setting up
Managing Stakeholders
Scoping the evaluation
Planning the action
Selecting an Evaluator
Managing the Evaluation
Acting on the Findings
Evaluation
The Evaluation part of a project:
monitors what you are doing
measures what you have done
finds out what was effective and what was not.
It is a necessary part of all projects. Evaluation is at its best when it is fully integrated into all project stages.
Evaluation Planning
If you are managing a project that does not have an evaluation scheduled in the project plan, review what sort of information people might need during the remainder of the project's lifetime.
Evaluation Types
An evaluation for development or proactive evaluation is undertaken when people are aware there is a problem but they do not know its extent. Typical questions include:
what is the level of crime in the community?
what are community concerns and perceptions about this crime?
who wants to see a crime prevention project set up?
A design or clarificative evaluation helps you decide on the best way to organise the project.
Typical questions are:
what is the most effective way to respond to these particular crimes?
what have other communities with similar problems done?
how effective have comparable projects been?
what sort of outcomes can the community realistically expect?
what sort of resources, funds and skills will be required?
what management will be needed, particularly for longer projects?
People and Evaluation
The Guidelines assume the project will have a Project Committee responsible for overall direction and management of the project, and a Project Manager responsible for day-to-day running of the project.
The Project Committee will usually be made up of representatives of:
people affected by crime, such as traders, ratepayers or residents
those that provide services aimed at preventing or reducing crime, such as local councils, schools, and community groups
community organisations that help those affected by crime, such as churches, youth refuges, women's refuges, and support groups
professionals and experts such as counsellors, youth workers, doctors, planners and social workers
the police.
The project will be evaluated by an Evaluator—someone inside the project (an internal evaluator) or a consultant recruited from outside the project (an external evaluator).
There are 2 broad groups of people who will be involved or affected by the project, although they may not be directly involved in its day-to-day work. They are:
stakeholders—people and groups directly involved in planning and running the project, or affected by the crimes the project aims to prevent. They should be represented on the Project Committee.
interested parties—people who know about the project, may be interested in it, but are not directly involved. Interested parties are usually not directly involved in implementing the Evaluator's recommendations.
Download: Guidelines for Evaluating Community Crime Prevention Projects 
PDF 371kb
Last update: Tuesday, August 26, 2008