The preventive turn in the policing of urban space, as experienced by the citizens

In the past several decades, prevention has clearly become the new core principle, “the defining logic governing crime”, and is referred to as the preventive turn. As in other countries announcing a more repressive antisocial behaviour policy, in Belgium a similar move can be observed. With legislation on municipal administrative sanctions, the enforcement authority of local governments expanded to include incivilities. We can see the emergence of incivilities as a new field of intervention at the local level, whereby new initiatives are merged with those already existing crime prevention initiatives. The result is the establishment of numerous projects to specifically tackle antisocial “incivil” truant youth who hang around in public spaces and constitute a “risk”. To date, there is no scientific research available on this topic, which is why this research project focuses on the following questions:

• Which prevention initiatives aimed at the disturbance of order in the public space by young people exist in Belgium?
• How do these initiatives function in day-to-day practice?
• How do the youngsters involved experience these practices?

First of all, the project wants to map the preventive field regarding disturbance of public space by youngsters in Belgium through a profound literature study. To do this, A. Evenepoel will contact several municipal prevention services to find out about the initiatives they offer and how the teenagers are engaged. Secondly, to find out what types of behaviour are actually addressed in practice, A. Evenepoel focus on some of these initiatives and study them in depth. The selection is based on the insights from the first phase. After having selected these cases, the types of behaviour that are being addressed will be study through an analysis of the reported files and take a deeper look at the actual practice by conducting a participant observation at the service responsible for the initiation and elaboration of the intervention. Finally, through semi-structured interviews, A. Evenepoel will try to create a clear image of the experiences and opinions of youngsters who have been the subject of this type of prevention initiatives.