Keep it simple...

You might have heard or read about the phrase, "Crime Triangle" today...

The crime triangle offers an easy way to visualize and understand crime problems. Three things  must exist in order to have a crime: an offender, a victim, and a location.   Those three things are the three sides of the crime triangle.  Lacking any one of  these sides, and there is no triangle; a crime will not occur.

A patrol officer on the street may be one way of eliminating the crime. the officer takes away location and may cause an offender to change behavior at that moment. 

A potential victim who changers their behavior alters the triangle, too, by using good safety practices and reducing at-risk bahaviors.

When an offender goes to jail or a potential offender changes his ways, that eliminates crimes committed by him...part of the crime triangle being altered.

One aspect of Crime Prevention is altering one of those three elements and thus reducing crime...

As guardians, we all have the ability to affect the crime triangle; either by taking away location (it also may be called "opportunity")  or by providing safety for the victims, or by arresting offenders...

You are guardians, too.   As citizens, you can take away the opportunity (Location) by using good safety practices   You can also reduce your chances of being a victim.

By attacking and changing 2 sides of the triangle, we certainly eliminate the chances of crime happening in our areas..and we are much more effective.

It's a simple way to think about Crime Prevention, and we all like to keep things simple when we can.