Perspectives of Crime Prevention: 24th and 26th German Prevention Congress

"Democracy is more than a system of governance: it is the bypro-

duct of trust between the people and institutions. It is built on a

belief in both society and the individual, fed by consensus while

it aims at development and sustainability. In recent years, there has grown a general feeling in a number of European citizens

that the EU may in fact lack an effective democratic system. The

truth is that more often than not, we tend to discuss democratic principles as if they are well established within a society, providing us with a default mode of operation. Lately, however, a surge of racist episodes, xenophobic attacks, the rise in hate speech and

the prevalence of social exclusion, has not only led a large number

of EU citizens to believe that democracy failed them, but has also

shown how fragile the democratic culture is. The youth involve-

ment in different acts of violence has exacerbated the situation by

adding up to a general feeling of deficit and a negative evalua-

tion of the political elites. On the other hand, the prevention of

extremism through the rolling out of violence policy procedures is

strongly connected to the enhancement of democratic citizenship.

It follows from the above that the questions of whether a lack of

democracy can provide us with the root cause of violence and

whether the strengthening of democratic principles can become

the leading process towards violence prevention, are challenges to

be further analyzed and discussed."

(extract from the publication)

The Congress Publication for the 24th and 26th German Prevention Congress (Berlin and Cologne) has become a comprehensive

volume of 342 pages.

The book is now published and available online. It can also be ordered as a printed book (ISBN 978.3.96410.032.0) or as an eBook (ISBN 978.3.96410.033.7) from bookshops.