Summary

Work on risk has developed into a large industry applied in a variety of ways and locations. Here we locate crime research in the overall interdisciplinary study of risk and begin to address how risk can be used as a key element in our understanding of crime origins, evolution and prevention. We investigate how risk has been dealt with in crime theories and the usefulness of this concept in connecting crime perspectives together; we consider the ways in which risk is embedded in the evolution of crime; and how we might use the concept of risk to prevent crime and victimization. Using the criminal event perspective, we tie together risk with crime theories in a coherent fashion. Further, we explore how these ideas work in practical applications of crime control and prevention. The implicit notion of risk assessment practiced by police is explored and made explicit in our treatment of this topic in our last chapter. We believe that the increased interest in risk demands that we have a clearer idea of how it works within crime theories and how it can be successfully employed in improving police practice, providing the tools to act proactively on good intelligence and carefully thought out strategies.