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Building safer communities: Knowledge mobilisation and community safety in Scotland

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Abstract

This article examines the contribution of a knowledge mobilisation project to the practice and delivery of community safety in Scotland. There is no statutory responsibility for the delivery of community safety in Scotland and no governmental definition of its object. The longstanding and emergent challenges faced by community safety partnerships in Scotland, however, mirror those encountered in other jurisdictions. The Building Safer Communities project, through a range of capacity building exercises inclusive of the development of web-based resources and the establishment of practitioner fellowships, sought to address some of the information and training needs underpinning these challenges. The establishment of this initiative rested in its timeliness in relation to broader policy and practice developments, established academic-practitioner partnerships and its resource base. The outcomes (the engagement with knowledge mobilisation resources and their impact on practice) and sustainability of this endeavour, however, are subject to the very same challenges that provoked its establishment.

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Notes

  1. The five strategic outcomes set by Scottish Government are, to make Scotland: Wealthier and Fairer; Smarter; Healthier; Safer and Stronger and Greener.

  2. Academics from Glasgow University, Dundee University and Edinburgh University participated in the project.

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Acknowledgements

The research on which this article is based was funded under the ESRC/SFC/LARCI ‘Engaging with Scottish Local Authorities Scheme’, RES-809-19-0017.

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Correspondence to Jon Bannister.

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Bannister, J., Croudace, R., Pickering, J. et al. Building safer communities: Knowledge mobilisation and community safety in Scotland. Crime Prev Community Saf 13, 232–245 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/cpcs.2011.11

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