M any reports on major national initiatives like the Crime Reduction Programme acknowledge ‘implementation failure’. Common explanations are ‘poor project-management skills’,or ‘short-term funding regimes’. Important as these are,Heraclitus’excellent Soapbox article (‘Good Practice - What’s it all about?’ Network News,Winter 2005) also blamed ‘dumbing down.’ Higher echelons in crime prevention often believe ‘The only information you can hope to get into practitioners’heads is a slogan or two,if lucky.’ I totally disagree. Crime prevention’s basic idea is simple (cutting the cause cuts the risk),but its practice is complex.
