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The Report: Crime-Cutting Miracles?

Crime-Cutting Miracles?

01/09/2011

BBC Radio 4 - The Report, Crime-Cutting Miracles?

Mobeen Azhar investigates whether innovative police initiatives can prevent crime.

Mobeen Azhar asks if 'miracle' police initiatives in Glasgow and the US can prevent violent crime.

Following the riots the government has been keen to look at initiatives which hold out the promise of preventing violent crime. The Violence Reduction Unit was set up in Glasgow in 2004. The murder rate in the city had been high for generations. The radical idea the VRU had was that, rather than solve violent crime, police should prevent it. Violence is treated like a disease - tough police enforcement goes hand in hand with community initiatives aimed at changing the culture of violence. 
Police initiatives in the US also have the same aspiration. Bill Bratton, who will be advising the government, was police commissioner in New York & Los Angeles when violent crime fell dramatically. Mobeen Azhar asks how initiatives, in both Scotland & the US, actually operate & whether they work. 

Contributors 
Commissioner Bill Bratton
Professor Larry Sherman
Professor Andrew Karmen
Dr Michael Murray
Karyn McCluskey, VRU
DS Steven Kettenhorn, Strathclyde Police
Superintendent Bob Hamilton, Strathclyde Police 
Angela Morgan, Chief Exec, Includem 
Commander Steve Rodhouse, MET

Producer : Rosamund Jones.

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