AbstractIt has long been recognised that crime prevention is an integral part of police work and one which requires public support. Nevertheless, in recent years the police have tended to emphasise a deterrent approach to crime control, a development which has pushed crime prevention into a backwater. If crime prevention is to develop, and there are sound reasons why it should, it must be crime specific in its approach and draw on the resources of the whole community. There are obstacles to be overcome; principally that for many the cost of living with crime is seen to be less than the cost of preventing it.