Community Resilience and Crime Prevention: Applying the Community Engagement Theory to the Risk of Crime

Citizens are increasingly expected to take a more participatory role in society, which increases the need for them to be knowledgeable about a wide range of uncertain risks and to properly prepare themselves in case these risks become reality. To date, most attention regarding risk preparedness has focused on natural hazards. In the past decade, however, human-made safety risks have gained notoriety in the public’s eye. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the psychological drivers on an individual, community and institutional level of the Community Engagement Theory also apply to the context of social safety hazards such as crime. The study was conducted via an online survey. In total, 1245 Dutch citizens who were already a member of the citizen panel of their municipality at the time of data collection participated in the online study. The results of this research show that the Community Engagement Theory is not only applicable for natural hazards, but also for human-made risks such as crime. Psychological drivers of all three levels, individual, community, and marginally institutional level, are relevant in explaining the willingness to report and intervene when witnessing a crime. This research gives insight and guidance for policy makers and practitioners regarding stimulating reporting and intervening behavior of crime, and citizens information-gathering.