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South Africa urgently needs innovative, effective interventions to counteract the negative impact of crime and violence. Resources are scarce and the problems complex. In addition, the wave of new technology presents special challenges to decision makers in the crime prevention and justice environments.

The national priorities for addressing crime and violence have been broadly spelt out by the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS, 1996) and the White Paper on Safety and Security (1998), and include both more effective law enforcement and social crime prevention strategies. These strategies are essentially problem-solving strategies. As such, they depend heavily on the availability of reliable research at levels appropriate to the problems being addressed. There is a compelling need for sound research that can guide public decision-making, policy and practice.

The national crime prevention strategy – Research Resources Centre (RRC)

This Consultative Conference on Research Towards the Prevention of Crime and Violence is a key output of the RRC, a new initiative which addresses the need of the NCPS to be information and knowledge driven.

The RRC is presently funded by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST) as a pilot project on research infrastructure for the National System of Innovation, and is managed by the CSIR.

In this context, the objectives of the Consultative Conference on Research Towards the Reduction of Crime and Violence are:

• To communicate government’s crime prevention framework and research needs to the research community;
• To provide a forum for communicating available and ongoing research results to government stakeholders;
• To assess the gaps in available research (by a panel of experts) and to workshop ways of addressing those;
• To network with government role players and the research community.

For more information on the Conference, contact:

Conference details are also available at the following website:
http://www.ncps-rrc.co.za/