Publications: Crime solutions
Changing behaviour to prevent crime: an incentives-based approach
This project looked specifically at the potential to change the behaviour of individuals and businesses who may be potential victims of crime. Individuals and businesses are amongst many 'agents' and 'influencers' who can potentially change the level of crime. The report includes a description of an 8-step technique for developing solutions to problem areas, and two case studies demonstrating where the technique has been applied.
Title: Changing behaviour to prevent crime: an incentives-based approach
Author: Home Office
Series: Home Office Online report 05/06
Date published: March 2006
Number of pages: 128
Availability:
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This project looked at potential victims and those who can play a part in preventing crime. It identified households and businesses as a priority target that could be encouraged to take more action to prevent crime.
A major output of the project is a toolkit for policy development to help policy makers and delivery agencies understand why individuals, businesses and other 'agents' fail to take action to prevent crime. The toolkit includes:
an 8-step framework to help unpick problems with reference to the relevant agents/influencers and to select the most promising policy ideas;
a substantial evidence base to show which policy options are most appropriate in which circumstances
an interactive version of the framework with guidance and templates to help policymakers work through their own policy question
The toolkit for policy development is to be promoted to policy-makers in the Home Office. It will also be made available to other government departments and delivery agencies.
The eight-step framework was tested by applying the approach to some specific crime problems:
how to design security features into new products;
how to reduce crime on industrial estates
how to reduce theft of old cars.
The full report contains 2 detailed case studies describing how the framework was applied.
The framework
Set the scene. Identify the crime of concern, estimate its incidence, and develop understanding of the victim, offender and context. Estimate the harms to society associated with the crime.
Identify ALL those 'agents' who contribute to the problem and/or may act to prevent it.
Identify, for all agents, how society would wish them to behave, given our knowledge of what works in crime prevention and the costs and benefits to society of alternative courses of actions.
Identify how agents behave currently. In many cases, the important information will be that agents are failing to behave in the desirable ways identified in step 3.
Where it is the case, explain why agents do NOT behave as we would wish them to do (i.e., where there is divergence between behaviours identified in 3 and 4).
Categorise the explanations for behaviour identified in step 5. These should include 'market failures', failure of existing policy, and 'non-rational' explanations of human behaviour.
Identify policy options. Some of these will emerge naturally from a developed understanding of the problem. Others are identified from the evidence base on policy effectiveness set out in 'Understanding Policy'.
Filter out options least likely to be cost-effective, considering the criteria for assessing policy and the evidence base on policy effectiveness, set out in 'Understanding Policy'.
Further details on the framework and how to use it - including a tool that can be downloaded to hand-hold users through the process - can be found at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/changing-behaviour.htm.
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Changing behaviour to prevent crime: an incentives-based approach
PDF 799Kb
Last update: 05 April 2006