Preventing Crime & Creating Safer Communities
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Crime Prevention Information & News

Creating Safer Communities in Europe: a crime prevention sourcebook

AUSTRIA

Austria has relatively low crime rate, and insecurity does not appear to be a major concern of the population. According to the 1996 International Crime Victimisation Survey, Austria has the lowest rate of car crime in Europe, and has half the overall crime of England & Wales or the Netherlands. Although only half of Austrians think that the police are doing a good job, they are among the least punitive of Europeans, preferring community sentences to imprisonment.

Most crime prevention initiatives in Austria are taken by the police under the direction of the crime prevention section of the Ministry of the Interior in Vienna and focus primarily on the dissemination of public information and advice. By 1996 there were about 200 officials (accountable to the police) based in 143 decentralised advice centres. As well as media work these centres act as foci for encouraging shared responsibility for crime prevention and they accrue data about actual criminal activity in their areas. Recent preventative campaigns have included 'violence in the family' (media information, seminars for police officers and work with young people) and 'sexual abuse of children' (videos, brochures and events).

The Child Abuse Awareness Programme

The Austrian Police report around 500 cases a year of suspected child abuse and their own investigations revealed a minimum of 10,000 cases. In March 1995, the Austrian police launched an awareness programme and a CD "a thousand others" was recorded by famous Austrian musicians. The CD and a puppet theatre video is shown in schools.

Safety Committees

In 1994 in Vienna, district safety committees were established with representation from the local authority, police and local people. At the same time certain police officers were decentralised to local contact points so that they could have more direct communication with people in the area. The principle is for local people to identify the problems, which are then tackled by the police.

Contact

Bundesministerium des Innern, Generaldirektion fur die ?ffentliche Sicherheit, Herrengasse 7, A-1014, Vienna 1.

Instut fur Rechts und Kriminalsoziologie, Museumstr.5, A-1016 Vienna.