Introduction

Welcome to the Community Counts for Crime Prevention and Reduction Policy View - a new tool that has been jointly developed by the Nova Scotia Departments of Justice and Finance, with funding from the National Crime Prevention Centre. This tool provides information to communities, stakeholders and policy makers about the types and frequencies of crime occurring in local areas, as well as factors that put local areas at risk of higher crime rates. It features Community Crime Prevention and Reduction Profiles and maps displaying crime data for Police Districts and Justice Centres.

Purpose

This tool will be an aid to communities and stakeholders for understanding crime (or lack of crime) in their local areas. It can help to paint a portrait of crime and risk factors that can be used to plan programs, as well as provide benchmark statistics for measuring progress. It should not be used as the sole source of information for developing intervention or prevention programs. Communities and stakeholders often have additional information to contribute. Many factors associated with crime are beyond the scope of this tool due to the complexity of the nature of crime and its root causes.

The Crime Prevention and Reduction Policy View

This tool provides a way of viewing data in Community Counts through a crime prevention and reduction lens. It has been developed to support the Department of Justice Crime Prevention and Reduction Strategy and community-based crime prevention and reduction initiatives. For more information about the strategy for Nova Scotia, click here. For background information relating to crime prevention and reduction, click here.

The Crime Prevention and Reduction Policy View includes the following elements:

• Justice Geographic View (Police Districts and Justice Centres)
• Community Crime Prevention and Reduction Profiles showing:
  • Crime statistics
  • Risk factors for crime
• Maps of Nova Scotia showing comparative data for Police Districts and Justice Centres

The Community Crime Prevention and Reduction Profiles provide information in easy-to-understand narrative and chart formats, with comparisons to Nova Scotia. To view your profile, click here.

Training Workshops

Free training is available on how to use this tool to better understand crime and crime-related risk factors for local areas across Nova Scotia. For information about a training workshop in your area, click here.