Kriminalprävention in der Risikogesellschaft

Abstract: This paper intends to discuss the social context for the problem of crime as a particular riskfactor in the western society that is characterized by an experienced increase of social, occupational, economic and technological risks. With regard to social change and modernization, spiritual safety strategies of pre-modern times, rational approaches to security of the modernity and context-situational practices of the "reflexive modernity" compete with each other in order to satisfy the ever-increasing social demand for public safety. Communal, situational and participatory strategies for crime prevention arise with the increased public sensitivity towards social disorder and a fundamental change in social cohesion. The present mosaic of crime prevention strategies is thus a consequence of the process of social transformation and the dynamic of de-traditionalization.;