Linkages between housing, policing and other interventions for crime and harassment reduction on public housing estates

Summary

Reducing crime in public housing areas with community renewal requires social, rather than physical, interventions. Intense interagency and whole-of-government approaches and empathetic, locally based housing management and community policing are particularly valuable.


Project Number: 70111
Research Theme: Public_and_Community_Housing, Social_Wellbeing
Project Leader: Judd, Bruce
Funding Year: 2001
Research Centre: UNSW-UWS

Research and Policy Bulletin

Research & Policy Bulletin

Issue 055: Public Housing, Policing and Crime Reduction

Reducing crime in public housing areas with community renewal requires social, rather than physical, interventions. Intense interagency and whole-of-government approaches and empathetic, locally based, housing management and community policing are particularly valuable.

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Description

Using a strong research design the study provides robust and corroborated findings.

Nine public housing estates were selected for study in consultation with the relevant State Housing Authority. In each State one estate was an exemplar of primarily physical neighbourhood renewal, one of primarily social neighbourhood renewal, and the third an estate in which little or no neighbourhood renewal had taken place.

The key findings of the research are:

  • Social rather than physical interventions are associated with reductions in crime.
  • Whole of government strategies and intensive inter-agency collaborations create a context within which social interventions flourish.
  • Empathetic housing management and ‘non-traditional’ community policing are effective in reducing crime.
  • Neither selling public housing to increase the tenure mix nor Radburn-reversals are associated with reductions in crime. It is possible the benefits of such interventions were not yet apparent given the time-scale of the research.

The published report provides no information about where the study areas are to avoid stigmatization. Detailed findings have been provided to housing and police agencies separately.

More Information

Download now Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 055: Public Housing, Policing and Crime Reduction
93 KB PDF Document

Download now Final Report: No. 073: Linkages between housing, policing and other interventions for crime and harrassment reduction in areas with public housing concentrations
3.84 MB PDF Document

Download now Positioning Paper: No. 043: Linkages between housing, policing and other interventions for crime and harrassment reduction on public housing estates
4.2 MB PDF Document

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