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Introduction
In 1979 Herman Goldstein wrote one of the most influential papers in the history of policing. It was entitled: 'Improving Policing: A Problem-Oriented Approach' (Goldstein, 1979). Goldstein argued that police services were failing to deal with their core objective: tackling recurrent police-relevant problems of concern to the local community. This was based on a critique of policing at the time which he considered largely reactive and often ineffective. The problem-oriented approach calls for a change in how police agencies operate. It suggests that police effectiveness can be improved through shifting attention away from responding to crime on a case-by case basis in favour of a more systematic approach to determine preventive solutions to substantive problems that arise in the community.
The problem-oriented approach is one of many contemporary policing strategies. Scott (2008) identifies community policing, broken-windows policing, pulling-levers policing, hot-spots policing, third-party policing, Compstat policing, evidence-based policing, intelligence-led policing and zero tolerance policing as further policing innovations. Since its inception, however, the problem-oriented approach has attracted many adherents, most notably in Britain and the United States (Read and Tilley, 2000; Scott, 2000). Numerous reviews, case studies and experiments have since established its potential as an effective crime and disorder reduction strategy (for example, Weisburd and Eck, 2004; Weisburd et al , 2010).
While such developments are encouraging, there have been serial implementation challenges when attempting to translate the basic logic of problem orientation into routine practices (Scott, 2000; Bullock et al , 2006; Knutsson and Clarke, 2006; Boba and Crank, 2008; Knutsson, 2009; Tilley, 2010). While SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment) is the best known model internationally for delivering problem-oriented work, in Britain alternatives have emerged both to address perceived shortcomings in SARA and to reflect the distinctive context for undertaking problem-oriented work in Britain. The distinct British context refers to the Crime and Disorder Act of 1998. This Act requires all local areas to establish a formal partnership involving the police, local authority, health and probation services to work together with the local community to address local problems. Such is the importance placed on partnerships in Britain, the terms 'problem-oriented partnership' or 'problem-oriented policing and partnership' have come to be preferred to 'problem-oriented policing' though the underlying meaning remains the same. Despite...