Inventing the Future

New approaches to crime prevention flourish as we learn from the past.

By Alfonso E. Lenhardt, President and CEO

Some say that the path to the future lies in the lessons of the past, and I agree.

When McGruff first appeared 29 years ago, he urged people to lock their doors and turn on their lights. Target hardening, as this was called, soon became joined with the need for community action to take back the streets from criminals and to make neighborhoods inhospitable to crime. Community organizing was paramount. Soon, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), which contends that we can create a climate of safety by altering a community’s physical environment, became a basic tenet of crime prevention.

As NCPC grew, it began offering programs to keep at-risk children and teens focused on positive behavior. This behavior would enable them to achieve their dreams of success as students and good citizens who could eventually contribute their education, talent, and abilities to a safer society. These programs evolved from mentoring to programs such as Teens, Crime, and Community and curricula such as NCPC’s Community Works. At the same time, as NCPC spurred crime prevention programs to flourish across the country, others promoted their own programs, some of them at the cutting edge of crime prevention. A summer anti-crime program in Los Angeles promoted urban music in the city’s parks and resulted in a dramatic drop in summer crime. A hip-hop dance and music program in Chicago channeled the energy of inner city youth and focused their energy on positive goals.

Now, in the 21^st century, we have taken a giant leap forward to confront the new crimes that have evolved with the lightening fast advances in new technology that characterize the world today. We have channeled our efforts into protecting Americans from crimes such as identity theft to fraud committed against seniors. And we are tackling cyberbullying head on. The latest permutation of cyberbullying is one of its worst—sexting, the sharing of sexually explicit photographs, mostly by teens, via electronic devices. We will confront this crime as we have done others, with leadership, education, and ingenuity.

Our two top stories in this issue of Catalyst speak to new challenges. The first story, about NCPC’s new Circle of Respect initiative, explains how we are making it clear that bullying and cyberbullying aren’t cool. Rather, they are anachronistic behaviors that no self-respecting child or teen would engage in. Through research and partnerships with such groups as the Simon Property Group, the largest owner of retail malls in the country, we will bring this message to a national audience of children and parents who are demanding that something be done about the bullying and cyberbullying epidemics.

Our second top story deals with a different kind of epidemic. It examines crime in several Chicago neighborhoods in the context of a public health model and discusses the intervention by neighborhood volunteers much the same way that medical personnel would intervene in a public health crisis. It’s a fascinating look at a novel, ground-up volunteer policing initiative. It has been praised by President Obama and may well lead to similar programs in other cities.

Those of us who are engaged in crime prevention can be proud of our record. While we have maintained what’s good about the past, we have embraced the challenges of a new century with all the opportunities it brings. We are applying the skills we’ve honed, the experience we’ve gained, and the wisdom we’ve learned. As Alan Kay, the scientist who conceived of the first laptop computer said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”