Guidelines for Evaluating Community Crime Prevention Projects

Contents

STAGE 3 - SCOPING THE EVALUATION

What you will do in Stage 3

Summarise the project so the Evaluator knows:

• The issue the project aims to address
• What the project does to prevent or reduce crime
• How the project expects its activities will prevent or reduce crime

SCOPING THE PROJECT

1. Bring together all of the written information you have on what the project aims to do and how it aims to do it.

This may include:

• written agreements or contracts between groups in the project
• the project specifications
• presentations, leaflets, brochures or articles about the project
• funding applications and agreements
• minutes of the Project Committee's meetings
• progress reports
• the completed PLANNING SHEETS 2A, 2B AND 2C.

2. Copy PLANNING SHEET 3 and list on it:

• the crimes or perceived issues the project was set up to prevent or reduce
• the people likely to commit these crimes, if known
• the people affected by the crime or the problem
• crime rates, if known.

Summarise the problems the project aims to address. Often, it will not be clear who is responsible for crimes, so you will not be able include this on PLANNING SHEET 3. So write:

• homes in Western Heights burgled-16 cases in 1999
• heroin trafficking in Main Street-anecdotal evidence of trade.

3. On PLANNING SHEET 3 list the outcomes the project aims to achieve.

Give specific, concrete outcomes. Include target figures if appropriate.

4. On planning sheet 3 list the project activities that aim to reduce or prevent crime.

The approach taken by the project may not be well documented.

There are many approaches to preventing crime. Traditional approaches include:

• reducing the opportunity for people to commit crime
• modifying the behaviour of people likely to commit crimes or at risk of crime.

Responses to these have been:

• increasing street lighting, to prevent muggings and brawls.

Ways of modifying behaviour that have been suggested include:

• teaching people negotiation skills and ways to manage anger.

5. On PLANNING SHEET 3 list:

• where the project operates
• who provides services, runs activities, takes action at each site and what they do
• who these services and activities are being provided to, if anyone.

6. On PLANNING SHEET 3, summarise how the actions you listed in Steps 4 and 5 are expected to lead to the outcomes you listed in Step 3.

In some projects, people may not have thought about how what they are doing is meant to result in change. In this case, note this and any assumptions about how change is going to happen.

7. List the documents you read and people you consulted to complete PLANNING SHEET 3.

You will need this later to help ensure you have managed relations between the stakeholders equitably.

8. Ask the Project Committee to check the completed PLANNING SHEET 3.

Explain that this document summarises key information about the project that the Evaluator will need in Stage 6 to design the evaluation. Make any changes necessary.

9. Attach a copy of any key documents to the completed PLANNING SHEET 3.

Only include information the Evaluator will need to understand the project, which you have not covered in PLANNING SHEET 3.