Preventing Crime and Violence Through Communities that Care

The author, among others, has developed a system that empowers communities to organise themselves to engage in outcome focused prevention planning. This system for prevention planning using the tools of prevention science is Communities That Care (CTC). In a collaborative US project 22 reliable and valid archival indicators of 12 major risk factors that predict rates of adolescent drug use at the county level were found. This collaborative project has also developed a validated school survey that measures risk, protection, delinquency and drug use outcomes reliably across states and ethnic groups. It allows a diagnosis of risk and protection levels in any geographical area, from a state to a neighbourhood. With these tools, communities can organise themselves to engage in outcome focused prevention planning, objectively assess their own profiles of risk and protection, and choose and implement effective strategies to address their unique strengths and needs. In Europe CTC has been currently introduced in England and Wales, Scotland and in the Netherlands.