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What do preschool and streetlights have in common?

According to Northeastern University researchers, both are effective ways to prevent crime, and they don't require the involvement of the formal justice system.

These seemingly unrelated strategies—early childhood education and environmental design—share a crucial similarity, the researchers say. They focus on preventing crime before it occurs by addressing underlying conditions in communities.

"High-quality early preschool is an example of what we might call an early-developmental crime prevention program that has demonstrated a tremendous social impact in communities across this country," says Brandon Welsh, dean's professor of criminology and co-director of the Crime Prevention Lab at Northeastern University.

"Changing the architecture of buildings, improving the lines of sight in common areas or improved lighting is another area of crime prevention," he says.

Welsh and Eric Piza, the Lipman family professor of criminology and criminal justice and also co-director of the Crime Prevention Lab at Northeastern, are the editors of the most recent of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

The volume focuses on a new way to think of and deliver evidence-based and cost-efficient crime prevention, Welsh says, by putting at center stage the goals of social impact and social justice.

Crime prevention that prioritizes social impact is about harnessing the knowledge of evidence-based interventions and fostering systems change that is both meaningful and lasting, Welsh says. Social justice in this context equitably delivers crime prevention resources and promotes perceptions of fairness and legitimacy among individuals and the community at large.

As a result, the journal compiles, as Welsh says, "where the crime prevention movement needs to go, the progress being made, as well as the issues and the challenges that confront us."

"We've brought together the leading researchers from across the globe and top U.S. policymakers who are doing the work, who are really pushing the boundaries and advocating for greater attention to this duality of advancing social justice and social impact as a part of preventing crime," Welsh says.

So what can crime prevention for social justice and social impact look like?

The strategies described in the journal can be broken down into several categories.

Community and developmental crime prevention may consist of after-school programs or child social skills training, respectively, while surveillance cameras or improved street lighting may be categorized as environmental or situational crime prevention—or ways to reduce opportunities for crime.

These strategies, alongside partnerships with proactive policing, are an important part of an overall approach to reduce crime rates in U.S. cities, towns and neighborhoods, Welsh says.

But crime prevention doesn't guarantee gains in social justice or social impact.

"Neither social impact nor social justice are a natural byproduct of crime prevention," Welsh says. "Both require deliberate and sustained effort on the part of communities and other stakeholders."

At the same time, as Piza adds, "lowering crime rates and improving social justice have too often been incorrectly framed as incompatible and mutually exclusive. We feel there is a clear road map for preventing crime in a way that simultaneously fosters social impact and social justice. And the articles in the volume clearly demonstrate this."