Crime Prevention Plan: Addressing Crime in Melville, Perth

This report presents a crime prevention plan developed for the City of Melville in Perth, addressing concerns about rising crime rates, particularly graffiti and vandalism. The introduction highlights the importance of crime prevention for the city council and the specific challenges posed by these crimes. The report analyzes the crime patterns, focusing on graffiti incidents, and examines the criminal mindset through the lens of rational choice theory and routine activities theory. The crime prevention plan outlines objectives such as reducing criminal activities and eliminating graffiti. The action plan details strategies based on environmental design, natural surveillance, and an indicator system, incorporating crime prevention theories to address the identified issues. The plan also includes the implementation of a Graffiti Removal Management System. The report emphasizes a chronological approach to tackle graffiti and vandalism, utilizing various theories and strategies to create a safer environment for the residents of Melville. The plan aims to reduce criminal activities, eliminate all forms of graffiti and vandalism, and ensure a safe environment for the city's residents. The plan also focuses on continuous monitoring and maintaining the peace and vibrancy of the area.

Crime Prevention Plan
City of Melville, Perth

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Melville Crime Priorities.................................................................................................................4
Analysis of Criminal Mindset..........................................................................................................5
Crime Prevention Plan.....................................................................................................................6
Objectives of the plan..................................................................................................................7
Action Plan...................................................................................................................................7
Evaluation of the plan......................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
The City of Melville in Perth is one of the most crowded places of Western Australia. Crime
prevention is one of the major jobs that the City council has to perform and there are number of
hurdles in managing crime in Melville. Crimes are of different types and hence the city council
has to take assiduous steps to have proper law and order in the city. The City of Melville is a
vibrant and peace loving place and people are mostly concerned about their own work but in the
recent past but crime has not been completely eliminated (Armitage, 2017). The main crimes
committed in this region are assault, graffiti/vandalism and anti social behavior. Hence, it is
extremely important to address these problems in the city. Graffiti has been one of the major
crime issues in the area of Melville for a long time now (Ferrell, 2016). Graffiti could be seen in
and around the area especially when at the bus stops and the venues of healthcare service
providers. Graffiti is defined as the illegal spray paintings in the walls and has been an issue in
Western Australia (Finchett-Maddock, 2017). The Crime prevention department aims to put
forward a plan that would help to manage this crime especially in the public places and around
healthcare organisations. Melville City Council considers Graffiti as a priority crime and aims to
uproot it right from the core which requires judicious planning and effective execution
(Whitford, 2017). The present study proposes a step by step plan to address this issue and
provides a complete and comprehensive action plan to implement an effective graffiti removal
management plan for the area of Melville, Perth.

Melville Crime Priorities
Graffiti as a crime has caught the attention of the government and the local council in the last
decade or so because of its repeated reports of graffiti crime taking place across the city of
Melville. As per the statistics the local council came across around 7400 incidents taking place in
the financial year of 2016 (Ross, 2016). The rate of graffiti incidents has increased as more and
more young and educated youths have fallen to the fallacy of revolution. When some of them
are clearly unknown to what they are exactly against then some of them have pretty clear
agendas and this clearly shows that it is most of the times a planned project. Crime Pattern
Analysis is one of the most effective spatial framework which helps to understand the underlying
reasons of crime in an area (Arroyo Moliner & Clavell, 2016). Graffiti Vandalism has been given
huge hype through the social media and some of the criminals being extremely vocal about its
effectiveness. In the last couple of years on an average the city received about 20 unwelcome
posters and paintings which clearly showed that the young youths irrespective of their agendas
are interested to toying with the city administration. As per the crime analysis framework it could
be said that some of these youths do it absolutely to get attention do it and some of them are
interested in letting their voices heard through Graffiti (Cozens & Tarca, 2016). It has to be
mentioned that during the last ten years Graffiti has increased as some of them have not been
reported and hence it could stay for a long time. Since Graffiti and Vandalism are related to each
other and take place regularly across Melville in Perth it is important to implement a strong
analysis to understand the crime pattern. Since 2008 the trend in Annual Graffiti has been visible
(Vanderveen & Van Eijk, 2016).

Fig 1: Trends in Annual Graffiti in City of Melville (Vanderveen & Van Eijk, 2016)
The crime pattern analysis takes into account few key things which help the researchers to
understand the possibility of the crime taking place in an area. Analysis crime pattern becomes
easier with belief that crime doesn’t happen at random and there’s specific reason for it. Apart
from that it also takes into account the fact that crime happens when there’s opportunity and
hence it is a function of opportunity and finally the ideas and beliefs and of the criminals play an
important role in it which directly indicates that rational decision making is not always rational
(Kindynis, 2017). In the few years the Graffiti trend in Melville has showed that it is mainly an
art that helps people to convey something but it is directly affecting the aesthetic beauty of the
place and is also not good for the government. In the last few years Graffiti crime has increased
by at least 10% which shows that issues like political instability, social problems et cetera drive
opportunities for the graffiti criminals to commit crimes (Fagan & Buchanan, 2016).

Analysis of Criminal Mindset
The rational choice theory is a relevant theory which mainly shows the decision making process
of the graffiti criminals. This theory mainly states that a person makes rational calculations in
order to make a decision and always weighs the results and consequences. Even though Graffiti
or vandalism is not as dangerous as murders they could be used to send message to the society
and disrupt the peace. As discussed earlier the City of Melville is a peaceful state and people are
concerned about their own work, graffitists focus on drawing the attention of the people and to
make their presence felt (Reynald, 2016). Hence, doing this seems to give effective result with
minor consequences and hence they go for it clearly showing the reasons for making this
decision to paint the city and clutter its walls. According to the Australian Institute of
Criminology vandalism and graffiti would increase with the people showing higher interest on
internet and social media revolutions (Weisburd, Farrington & Gill, 2016). The young criminals
and neo-revolutionists who prefer graffiti to announce revolution and uproar but it is trifle in
nature and only affects the aesthetics of the neighborhood. According to the statistics there have
been 200 arrests and stopping over 5000 graffiti arts in Western Australia and Melville has
contributed to that effectively (Raymen, 2016). This is where Rational Choice Theory comes into
the picture because it shows that the criminal mindset is positive when a criminal understands
that the impact would be much larger as compared to the consequences that are likely to come
upon him or her (Hawkins & Weis, 2017).
The Routine Activities Theory is another related theory which is an excellent approach to
criminology. Analysing the motives of the criminals becomes extremely effective through this
theory because it helps to analyse the routine activities in the daily life of a person and how does
those influence him or her and how a change in it could affect the person and force him or her to

make drastic decisions (Shaftoe, 2017). For instance, a young kid of around 12 enjoys living with
family and doing all the works with the family but somehow his parents are separated and he
starts to think differently. In the past this has happened that a person’s background or the life
events alter the way people think and this tends to create the criminal mindset in them. In the
modern day environment societies tend to change with people and since Melville has different
people living in this area it could affect the way people think and behave which fuels criminal
activities like Graffiti (Cozens, 2016). This theory links the macro level structure model that
helps to explain why a crime occurs. In the last few reports from the Australian Institute of
Criminology on Graffiti and Vandalism it has been found that it is an act of self expression but it
mainly focuses on establishing powers especially in gangs. It is a direct damage to the owners of
the property and the city of Melville has been subjected to that for a long time (Popkewitz,
Olsson & Petersson, 2017).
Crime Prevention Plan
Crime prevention is one of the major tasks of the Melville City Council. Preventing a crime is
extremely important but also needs effective plan. The City of Melville, Perth has suffered from
Graffiti which is the indication of the presence of gangs which shows the window of
opportunities for Graffiti vandals to operate freely in this place. With all the ruckus in the
subject of crime it is important to note that theoreticians and scholars have not been effectively
successful in implementing their technology and social skills in preventing crime which could be
an effective way to analyse and eliminate crime (Newman & Clarke, 2016). Hence, the theory of
crime prevention comes into the picture. There are different theories of crime prevention which
clearly helps to address a particular criminal act and helps a society to be free of crimes and

criminals. The present prevention plan proposes a chronological approach to address the issue of
graffiti and vandalism in the City of Melville (Tilley & Sidebottom, 2017).
Objectives of the plan
 To reduce criminal activities around Melville City.
 To eliminate every kind of graffiti and vandalism from Melville.
 To ensure no vandalism and graffiti crime takes place around this area in future.
 To consistently oversee and keep the vibrancy and peace of the area intact.
Action Plan
The strategy that has been implemented is in line with the crime prevention theories. There is an
ongoing safety program in the city which is modified with the help of the new strategy. Different
actions are to be taken into order to ensure vandalism and graffiti acts don’t take place (Wortley
& Townsley, 2016).
1. According to the theory of crime prevention with the help of Environmental Design it is
important for the local council to ensure effective analysis of the locality and accordingly
develop environmental plans to reduce crime. Environmental design in this case means
identifying opportunities of the criminals in terms of physical and social environment.
Hence, in order to improve the environmental design of the place the local council has
planned a safety program which would involve dividing the locality into residential,
public and healthcare provider blocks (Crawford & Evans, 2017). Having well spaced
areas among these buildings would help to ensure no possibility of rendezvous and gang
wars. This also helps to plan the lighting system in the best possible way. The plan will

take care of the lighting to ensure every nook and corner of the city is well lit which
would help reduce criminal activities. Hence, the council will design total environment
for better safety of the people of Melville. This will control crimes, reduce the possibility
of crimes, offenders could be carefully monitored (Schaefer, Mazerolle & Kapnoulla,
2017).
2. The theory of natural surveillance would also be integrated in the system which would
help to ensure that the target areas and people could be easily monitored. The Local
council has planned to setup surveillance in the whole city to track any kind of unrest and
take immediate action with the help of rapid action squad that would help to reduce the
possibility of crimes like Graffiti and Vandalism (Clarke, 2017).
3. The Indicator system is implemented so that people and the city council are aware of the
situation in the streets. The green, Amber and red lights are used to inform people about
ongoing work of graffiti removals, possibility of crime and dangers. This helps to
integrate the planning with the theory of defensible space which is based on aspects like
enough visibility in the society and creating more places for surveillance. This local
council has planned to create environmental design with the help of defensible space
allowing the crime elimination bodies to properly oversee the area to ensure lesser works
of graffiti and Vandalism (Cozens & Tarca, 2017).
4. The Graffiti Removal Management System is implemented by the Melville City Council
which would help to ensure success in managing this issue. It is a team of people who are
directly connected to the local people through hotlines and other forms of connectivity
that helps them to effectively communicate with the people and get information on the
selected crime (Whitford, 2017).

5. The Theory of Situational Crime prevention is implemented with the focus of identifying
crime opportunities and to increase the perceived efforts of crime which would help to
improve the scenario across this area. Controlling access to targets, reducing crime
rewards, increasing rehabilitation and providing jobs, providing better protection and
surveillance largely help in completely eliminating crime (Armitage, 2017).
Evaluation of the plan
The evaluation of the plan would be done constantly every fortnight with the help of the received
data and reporting of crimes especially the targeted crimes. This would help the local council to
plan the strategy in a better manner and consistently improve the crime prevention plan. The
local council has planned to implement a panel of experts who would oversee the plan and the
results and accordingly develop KPIs and Feedback system directly receiving data about the plan
which would help to succeed with the plan (Ross, 2016).
Conclusion
The City of Melville is an excellent place and hence, in order to keep its vibrancy and positivity
intact implementing the crime prevention plan is extremely important. The present plan is likely
to improve the hold of the local council over graffiti and Vandalism and would help to prevent
this kind of crime in the near future.

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