Introduction: Crime and fear

Crime is a big worry for parents everywhere. Although the fear of crime far outstrips the level of actual crime, it is understandable, particularly in poorer neighbourhoods where crime and anti-social behaviour are far more common than in more average areas. For parents it is a particularly acute problem, and in the urban areas where the 200 families lived, crime is a dominant reason for parents not wanting to stay in the area or bring up their children there. This chapter sets out the crime problem as seen through parents’ eyes, then explores what interventions made a difference and what the overall impact on crime and on families’ security was of the measures that were introduced, particularly, neighbourhood wardens, community policing methods, Anti-social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) and neighbourhood crime prevention.

The neighbourhoods where our families live were deeply stigmatised by their occasional bursts of violent crime. The two inner-city areas in East London and the North had become ‘crime hot spots’ while we were visiting families early in 2000, involving gun battles, murders and drug wars, but the two outer neighbourhoods also experienced serious crime, including drugs. The underlying problems were pervasive: frequent trouble with young people hanging out on the streets and in stairwells; abandoned cars; vandalised, poorly maintained environments; and a barely visible police force. A strong police presence followed extreme incidents but often crime seemed ingrained in these neighbourhoods because of its recurring nature; their poor reputations reflected this conspicuous and disturbing problem. Often parents’ anxiety was heightened by anti-social behaviour and smaller problems of disorder.

The new Labour government in 1997 set itself ambitious targets to reduce anti-social behaviour, increase street supervision and cut actual crime. New Labour had come to power with the slogan, ‘Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’.