Government of South Africa

The National Crime Prevention Strategy has the following objectives:

The establishment of a comprehensive policy framework which will enable government to address crime in a coordinated and focused manner which draws on the resources of all government agencies, as well as civil society.
The promotion of a shared understanding and common vision of how we, as a nation, are going to tackle crime. This vision should also inform and stimulate initiatives at provincial and local level.
The development of a set of national programmes which serve to kick start and focus the efforts of various government departments in delivering quality service aimed at solving the problems leading to high crime levels.
The maximisation of civil society's participation in mobilising and sustaining crime prevention initiatives.
Creation of a dedicated and integrated crime prevention capacity which can conduct ongoing research and evaluation of departmental and public campaigns as well as facilitating effective crime prevention programmes at provincial and local level.
This National Crime Prevention Strategy is based on a fundamentally new approach by government. In particular, it requires the development of wider responsibility for crime prevention and a shift in emphasis from reactive "crime control"; which deploys most resources towards responding after crimes have already been committed, towards proactive "crime prevention" aimed at preventing crime from occurring at all.