A Letter from Slovenia: Recent Trends in Crime Prevention
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A Letter from Slovenia: Recent Trends in Crime Prevention Gorazd Meško1
Introduction This paper presents some endeavours on the part of Slovene criminology towards a researchbased crime prevention. The field of crime prevention is not as developed as in Western countries, but several initiatives and research projects show a strong willingness to incorporate contemporary crime prevention ideology and specific socio-economic, cultural, legal and other characteristics of Slovene society into a new, convenient model of crime prevention. Slovenian criminologists have studied the international literature on crime prevention and conducted several research projects on crime prevention, community policing and other forms of crime control. The College of Police and Security Studies (CPSS), affiliated to the University of Ljubljana, and the Institute of Criminology in Ljubljana have done the most amount of work in this field. A review of recent Slovenian literature and research on crime prevention Research on crime prevention by Slovenian academics covers at least three broad areas. First, a number of papers cover crime prevention debates taking place abroad, and discuss their relevance to the situation in Slovenia (Meško, 1996; Meško, 2000; Meško, 2002). Second, a growing number of publications focus on crime and crime prevention initiatives in Slovenia itself. Meško (2001b) presents research results on fear of crime, on police crime prevention and on the public’s opinion of the Slovenian police force. Meško and Houston (2001) consider situational crime prevention and its implementation in Slovenia, especially in the private security business. Meško and Umek (2001) is a paper on the Western experience of crime and drug problems and on diverse understandings of drug-related criminality, and also describes present Slovenian practice in the policing and treatment of drug users. Finally, other research draws direct comparisons between Slovenia and other countries. For example, Meško and Farrall (1999) discuss components of the ÿ (1999) compare dimensions fear of crime in Slovenia, Scotland and Holland, and Meško and Kovco and the extent of the fear of crime in Slovenia and Croatia. The most recent book on crime prevention is by Meško (2002). It includes all the most recent research results on crime prevention in English-speaking countries, and is based on research conducted by the author while at the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge in 2000–01. Recent Slovenian research on crime prevention Following a pilot study on crime control and crime prevention in Slovenia (Jager et al, 1998), a study on the possibility of a scientific (criminological) study of crime for the purpose of crime prevention and crime control was conducted by Meško (2001a). The study was conducted in the
Copyright © 2002 Perpetuity Press Ltd
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Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal
area of the largest police station in Slovenia—Ljubljana Central. Ljubljana is the capital of the country, with around half a million inhabit
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