Fear-based crime prevention tends to backfire

They come in many different shapes and forms, ranging from confrontational prison visits to more educational and fact-based approaches to programmes using modern-day technology to re-enact the experience of being arrested or punished, yet the idea is the same: confront people with the worst possible outcome if they were to commit crimes and the fear will prompt them to be law-abiding.

Fear-based tactics are commonplace within crime prevention and raising awareness of the potential risks and harms is assumed to deter people from that particular behaviour. However, this is not always the case. In fact, it may even be counter-productive.

Read more in the EUCPN brief