Category: Reports

Making Southern Africa Safe: Promoting Crime and Violence Prevention in the Southern African Region

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) recently developed and approved the Guidelines on Crime and Violence Prevention (‘the Guidelines’). The Guidelines acknowledge that building a region that is safe for all is not the sole responsibility of the police, security agencies, and the criminal justice system. The state and non-state actors within and outside the security sector have a vital role to play. Building upon Aspiration 4 of Agenda 2063 among other sources, the Guidelines recognise the importance of a developmental response in building a safe region and of a partnership between the state and the people at a local level in understanding and addressing the factors that increase the risks which contribute to crime and violence, while, at the same time, developing and supporting those factors that make communities more resilient.

This paper, written in collaboration with the ICPC, provides an overview of the Guidelines. It begins with a discussion on crime prevention and its development within the discourse on safety, law enforcement, and criminal justice. Thereafter, the paper describes the development of the Guidelines and the importance the aforementioned recognition has in the evolution of the SADC, including the promise it holds for sustainable development.

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Victims of Sex Trafficking in the Americas: Overview of Public Strategies and Future Directions, 2000-2019

It is with honor and enthusiasm that we present this thematic report on victims of sex trafficking in America. This publication aims to provide an overview of public strategies and to establish certain recommendations in light of research and proven findings.

The period 2000-2019 has been a crucial period in the fight against trafficking for sexual exploitation. Indeed, it saw the emergence of a series of legislative and organizational measures specific to this crime. From the Palermo Protocol, the first international legal foundation signed in 2000, to the various national strategies adopted subsequently, this thematic report allows us to understand how the issue of trafficking has been addressed by seven countries in the Americas, including Canada. Nearly 20 years later, time has come to realize that efforts still need to be made to contain this global phenomenon.

The originality of this report is based on the inclusion of a new criterion from the national anti-trafficking strategy: empowerment. This criterion places the victim at the center of our concerns. To be able to accompany him/her in the judicial process, to ensure his/her safety and well-being, whether the victim is a citizen or a migrant, is essential.

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Redefine, Reinvent, Redirect. Looking at contemporary police challenges in the light of today’s social movement.

Police reforms arise in different contexts. They might be triggered by increasing levels of crime and violence. Sometimes, they can stem from a wider reforming project, such as attempts to modernize the State, or efforts to democratize the security sector in post-conflict and transitional societies. In other cases, they are related to particular events, to research results or to investigations – by the media, the judiciary, parliament, or the police itself – that highlight problematic aspects of the police and of policing that need to be dealt with.

The recent killing of George Floyd by a US police officer in Minneapolis and a series of high-profile cases involving the use of disproportionate and even lethal force by police against racialized minorities are once again putting law-enforcement institutions under the spotlight. That is why calls to reform the police are rising again, not only in the United States, but elsewhere too: in Canada, in Quebec, in Australia, in New Zealand, in South Africa, in Kenya, in St. Petersburg, in Barbados, in France, and in the United Kingdom. This time, these demands are rallying behind a new slogan: “Defund the police”. What does it mean? Where does it come from? What is new about this idea? What does it entail? How is it different from previous calls to reform or to abolish the police? In this policy brief, we want to look at some of the main demands of today’s movement and to contribute to the discourse by clarifying concepts and ideas that can sometimes be confusing.

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Report on hate crimes based on gender identity and sexual orientation

Hate crimes based on gender identity and sexual orientation are on the rise. Attacks such as the one in Orlando on June 12, 2016, against the LGBTQ community, which resulted in the death of 49 people (US), and the one in Toronto on April 23, 2018, against women are both examples of this phenomenon. Hate crimes based on gender identity and sexual orientation do not solely impact the individual victim; their consequences are profound for the entire targeted group or community. Furthermore, hate crimes based on gender identity and sexual orientation represent a direct affront to the democratic principles of tolerance and respect for the identity and opinions of others. As such, this study aims to understand this phenomenon, its manifestations and roots. It also identifies promising practices and strategies used by states and cities to prevent hate crimes. The Study is due to be published in the spring of 2019.

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Report on The Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence: An international Study of Front-Line Workers and Intervention Issues

The objective of this study, funded by Public Safety Canada, is to identify the main challenges faced by frontline workers in preventing radicalization in order to gather specific and practical information regarding the implementation of programmes and initiatives, especially the ones linked to challenges, difficulties, as well as intervention management approaches.

To do so, the study was carried out in two phases. During the first one, exploratory interviews were held with 27 experts and specialists from 14 countries. Through this phase, we were able to obtain recommendations in selecting which frontline workers to target as well as countries and cities implementing interesting interventions for the prevention of radicalization. We were also given the contact information of some workers. Subsequently, the second phase of the study consisted in interviewing frontline actors, such as social workers, educators, etc. who are involved in the prevention of radicalization. A total of 63 workers from 23 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania were interviewed.

The Report for this study thus presents the main intervention dimensions in preventing radicalization as well as challenges faced by frontline workers, while also sharing their recommendations when it comes to intervening to prevent radicalization.

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Report on National Prevention Strategies for Youth Violence: An International Comparative Study

This international comparative study, funded by the Ministry of Public Safety of Canada, maps and analyzes different national strategies for youth violence prevention in six countries, including South Africa, Canada, Colombia, the United States, France and Norway. These countries have been selected on the basis of their income considering in particular that this may reveal important differences when it comes to connecting all the actors involved. Thus, four countries with high-income were selected compared to two countries with middle income.

This report is divided into four parts. The first part has three objectives: a) conduct a literature review on youth and violence; b) describe the comparison means and; c) describe the methodology used. The second part concerns the monographic description of each country's violence prevention strategy. The third part deals with the comparison of these strategies in the light of the notions of interface and comparison means. Finally, in the fourth part, conclusions of the study are presented as well as the recommendations.

The objective of this study is therefore to identify how coordination, the qualitative dimensions of such coordination (collaboration, leadership and participation) and information management are ensured in the implementation of prevention policies.

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Comparative study of crime prevention programs: “Successful experiences in the prevention of crime in Latin America”

In 2015, the ICPC produced a comparative study for the Chamber of Commerce of Bogota on the prevention of crime in Latin America.

This study consists of a review and an analysis of effective crime prevention practices in the region. It focuses on the institutional contexts of security policies in the eight countries surveyed and analyzes the regional coordination of these policies in ten selected cities.

The final report is only available in Spanish.

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Report on safety in ground public transport (2013-2015)

Safety in ground public transport is an important issue in a world where this type of transport is gaining in popularity and consequently is seeing its traffic growing steadily. Public transport is also a place where crime is rampant and can be a source of insecurity for users. In 2013 the ICPC, in collaboration with partners such as Transdev Canada Inc, the Agence métropolitaine de transport (Metropolitan Transportation Agency – Montreal), and the Observatoire national de la délinquance dans les transports (National Delinquency in Transports Observatory – France), began a study on the issue of security in terrestrial public transport.

The preliminary results of the study were presented at the ICPC’s 11th International Colloquium in Palermo, Italy, and a detailed report was released in 2015 and was presented at the 5th International Conference on Crime Observation and Criminal Analysis in Mexico. The report presents how to conduct a safety audit in ground public transport, the observation of this crime, and finally, the effective and innovative prevention measures that are implemented worldwide. Final report available in French only. Download the Report (PDF)

Study on “Preventing Radicalization: A Systematic Review”

The objectives of this study are firstly to promote a preventive approach in intervention strategies and projects when it comes to radicalisation leading to violence, and then to gather information concerning conceptualization, trends and research, as well as prevention tools (legislative and practical), especially those linked to the social prevention of this issue.

This study involves a review and analysis of both scientific and grey literatures, national and international norms and legislations, and promising programmes or practices on the subject on a global scale.

In order to accomplish this goal, we conducted two systematic reviews of the literature on radicalisation leading to violence, focusing on a diversity of keywords.

  • The first review focused on literature linked to contextualisation of the phenomenon exclusively in western countries, mainly trends, radicalisation and recruitment contexts, factors determining this process, as well as explanatory models and radicalisation trajectories.

  • The second review focused on prevention strategies, programmes and projects on radicalisation leading to violence. In this case, due to the limited number of studies on this specific subject, we considered studies without geographical limitations.

For this research, we examined 483 documents.

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