What do preschool and streetlights have in common? According to Northeastern University researchers, both are effective ways to prevent crime, and they don’t require the involvement of the formal justice system. These seemingly unrelated strategies — early childhood education and environmental design — share a crucial similarity, the researchers say. They focus on preventing crime before it occurs by addressing underlying conditions in communities.
“High-quality early preschool is an example of what we might call an early-developmental crime prevention program that has demonstrated a tremendous social impact in communities across this country,” says Brandon Welsh, dean’s professor of criminology and co-director of the Crime Prevention Lab at Northeastern University.
“Changing the architecture of buildings, improving the lines of sight in common areas or improved lighting is another area of crime prevention,” he says. Welsh and Eric Piza, the Lipman family professor of criminology and criminal justice and also co-director of the Crime Prevention Lab at Northeastern, are the editors of the most recent volume of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
