Crime and delinquency form one of the scourges of the modern era. The accepted way of dealing with them is through the mechanisms of the
law - the police, courts and prisons, detection, deterrence and punishment.

In recent years more attention is being paid to ways of preventing criminal activity and violence before they are committed. The United States’ National Crime Prevention Council defines this preventive activity as “the actions of observing, detecting and evaluating the risk of criminal activity and taking steps to forestall or reduce that risk”. Crime prevention is what the law-enforcement system does before a crime is committed and before the conditions leading to its commission come into being.

Preventive activity and the deployment of technology and other appropriate means are definitely capable of reducing criminality and deterring offenders, and not only from fear of being caught.

Technology as a Means for Crime Prevention
The Bureau of the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Public Security has compiled a manual Technological Means for Crime Prevention — to be periodically updated — to guide Metzilah in its day-to-day work with the Israeli public. The Hebrew-language notebook is designed to help local Metzilah coordinators, police station commanding officers, security officers and other senior security personnel in their efforts to link citizens to the fight against crime. Members of the public too can take ideas from the folder for increasing their personal security, both at home and more broadly for deterring crime. The manual sets out detailed instructions for preventive behavior and enumerates the technological means and devices appropriate to meet different threats and situations, thus allowing each individual to adapt his strategy and select his methods according to his own particular needs and resources.

As is stressed in the introduction of the manual: Relate to these means as one relates to health insurance. “It is good to have it, but hopefully you won’t be in a situation to need it.”

Crime prevention behavior advice includes:

• Supervise your small children
• Prevent personal property theft
• Walk in lit areas at night
• Have your car keys or house keys ready when needed
• Park your car in a lit area
• Protect your credit card and code numbers
• Keep your personal protection items available and visible
• Avoid public displays of your valuables, such as jewelry and cash
• Lock your bicycle, motorcycle, car
• Do not keep your house keys hidden outside in a “safe” place.  Instead, install a small safe outside where your keys can be kept.
• Provide a proper address and name on your house/apartment to avoid strangers bothering you or the neighbors.
• Notify the police of suspicious individuals or dangerous animals present in your neighborhood.

Items specified together with detailed instructions for their use include

I. For personal protection:

• Pepper spray
• Taser (electric shock device)
• Personal alarm
• Deterrence by guard dogs
• Body armor and protection
• Detection of forged currency
• Goggles for rear-view vision
• Electronic interference to prevent telephone bugging

II. For vehicle security:

• Bicycle, motorcycle, automobile locks
• Alarm systems
• Location and emergency signal devices
• Vehicle security systems

III. Home and business security

•  Door and window locks and window grills
•  Safes
•  Gates and perimeter fencing
•  Entry surveillance
•  Interior detection systems
•  Observation and communications systems
•  A control and security center

IV. Neighborhood security

• Perimeter detection and warning
• Gates and entry control
• Closed-circuit television
• Public address and warning systems
• Control and security center

V. Environmental planning for crime prevention

• Roads and paths
• Trees and vegetation
• Public facilities
• Lighting
• Location and security of public buildings
• Signs and identification marking
• Availability of telephones
• Alarms and control