Crime reduction and local partnerships in the United Kingdom and British Columbia

This paper explores the challenges of and the explanations for multi-agency partnerships in crime reduction work in the United Kingdom and Canada. It begins by reviewing the rise of crime reduction partnerships in the United Kingdom with a focus on legislation, programs, and strategies with partners. Partnerships at the local level, information sharing, accountability, roles and responsibilities, and value conflicts and power differentials in partnerships are additional themes in the paper. The City of Surrey Crime Reduction Strategy is provided as a Canadian example of multi-agency partnerships. An explanation for the rise of partnership work is also outlined in the paper. The differences in government structure, legislation, and delivery of a crime reduction model, accountability systems, blurring boundaries, and the offloading of responsibilities are discussed and analysed. The paper concludes by providing recommendations for further crime reduction and partnership studies.