The Self-Policing Society
Fear of crime is endemic and pressing. A new consensus has developed between Labour and Conservatives over the need for tougher sentencing and more police. Yet few people are confident that simply more of these kinds of measures will really reduce crime. As a society we rely too heavily upon specialist institutions such as the police and the prison service to sort out crime for us. Instead of this outsourcing of responsibility for dealing with crime, we need an approach which harnesses community self-help. We need innovative policies to help create a society better able to police itself through the development of Street Watch schemes, the creation of Neighbourhood Constables, the reintroduction of the police box and a managed market for policing. We also need to experiment with forms of punishment in the community and creative sentencing, to deliver more effective but more cost-efficient punishment in the community.