Crime prevention starts at home.  Members of the public can provide important informal surveillance roles, which reduces the incidence of crime in society, in their communities.  Transition by police forces to embrace plural policing methods has led to the shared responsibility for crime control between traditional policing authorities, third-party providers and the community.

To be considered is the criminalisation of minority groups in societies.  Defining what is a crime, when and to who is often a subjective experience mirroring our own cultural and personal beliefs. 

Places present opportunity and, in turn, opportunity generates crime.  For this reason, Australia has instituted laws to reduce opportunities and provocations for crime, such as laws prohibiting leaving unattended vehicles unlocked in public places.  

It is important to recognise places are as much perpetrators and victims of crime as individuals are. 

Particular theories relative to places and crime have created the field of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).