Prevention of Urban Crime: Safer Cities Concept Note

Over the last 20 years, the increase in crime has become a problem in the majority of the world’s largest cities both in the North and the South. In the North, crime, and in particular petty crime, has risen by 3% to 5 % annually between the 1970s and the 1990s in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. From the beginning of the 90s, thanks to initiatives taken in the field of prevention and law enforcement, crime rates stabilised in most countries, with the exception of youth crime (youth aged between 12 - 25 years) and crime by minors (12 - 18 years) which continued to increase.