Security

Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities: Guide to Organizing Semi-Structured Interviews With Key Informants – 2nd edition

Like discussion groups, direct observation and literature reviews, semi-structured interviews can be used to gather qualitative information. Interviews of this type are suited to working with small samples and are effective for studying specific situations or for supplementing and validating information derived from other sources used for making safety diagnoses. In addition, since they provide access to perceptions and opinions, they are useful for gaining insight into problems that are not perceptible immediately or are more difficult to observe, but that nonetheless cause concern in certain areas or in certain segments of the population.

During safety diagnoses, semi-structured interviews should be used to explore crime and safety problems perceived by representatives of the population, safety experts or other key informants. In planning the interviews, it is essential to take into account decisions about your vision and objectives, the life setting under study, the targe…

Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities: Guide to Conducting Surveys on Personal Safety in Life Settings

Generally speaking, surveys are used to obtain three main types of information:

  • information on the characteristics of individuals, including their personal characteristics (age, marital status, level of education, etc.), behaviour (amount of time spent doing certain activities, etc.) and living environment (workplace, housing, etc.);
  • information on the opinions of individuals (how safe or unsafe they feel, what they think about certain facts, ideas, programs or events, etc.);
  • information on their past personal experiences (victimization, etc.).

The data gathered during a survey can be grouped and analyzed to detect trends or associations, such as whether certain groups within a population (e.g. the members of a particular age group, men or women) or people in certain areas share a particular opinion to a greater extent than other groups or people do.

Surveys conducted as part of a safety diagnosis are aimed at painting a port…

Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities: Guide to Direct Observation of Community Safety – 2nd edition

In making safety diagnoses, it is sometimes useful to estimate or quantify certain behaviours or environmental features through direct observation of life settings. This observation method makes it possible to gather and analyze information on a series of problem safety situations related to the characteristics or behaviour of individuals (incivility) or to certain characteristics of the physical environment (disorder). Generally speaking, it requires the use of an observation log for entering information on the safety situations under study.

Even though it is difficult to foresee all of the problem safety situations that can arise in life settings, we have singled out a certain number on the basis of the scientific literature. All of these situations10 are included in the observation log proposed in Appendix 4:

  • Aggressive, intimidating or annoying behaviour by certain individuals.
  • Congregation of young people or adults who engage in annoying behavio…

Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities: Guide to Analysing Crime Using Official Statistics – 2nd edition

Promoting safety and preventing crime through a setting-oriented approach requires a structured procedure for planning the various activities to be carried out. The procedure involves mobilizing the population and intersectoral partners, making safety diagnoses and drawing up action plans. The Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities was prepared to assist with this procedure. It comprises several tools, including the Safety Diagnosis Handbook and six methodology guides. The document Turning Safety Diagnoses Into Action Plans: A Guide for Local Communities was prepared in addition to the tool kit, to facilitate the process of translating diagnoses into effective action plans.

The present document, Guide to Analyzing Crime Using Official Statistics – 2nd edition, is one of the methodology guides included in the Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities. The goal of this guide is to enable local communities to use official crime statistics for making safety diagno…

Québec WHO Collaborating Centre for Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention: Activity Report 2010

The Québec WHO Collaborating Centre (CC) for Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention, established in 1995, is comprised of institutions in the Québec public health network, i.e. four regional public health branches (Montréal, Montérégie, Capitale-Nationale and Bas-Saint-Laurent), the Direction générale de la santé publique in the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec and the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ). Through its mission of international cooperation, the INSPQ is responsible for ensuring the Centre's leadership and coordination.

Within their respective mandates, these partners run promotional activities on safety and prevention of intentional and unintentional injuries. These activities cover various fields of intervention such as violence and suicide prevention as well as safety promotion and injury prevention in urban environments, in transportation, in residential and in recreational and sports activities. The 2010 Activity Rep…

Centre collaborateur OMS pour la promotion de la sécurité et la prévention des traumatismes

Québec WHO Collaborating Centre for Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention: Activity Report 2009

The Québec WHO Collaborating Centre (CC) for Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention, established in 1995, is comprised of institutions in the Québec public health network, i.e. four regional public health branches (Montréal, Montérégie, Capitale-Nationale and Bas-Saint-Laurent), the Direction générale de la santé publique in the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec and the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ). Through its mission of international cooperation, the INSPQ is responsible for ensuring the Centre's leadership and coordination.

Within their respective mandates, these partners run promotional activities on safety and prevention of intentional and unintentional injuries. These activities cover various fields of intervention such as violence and suicide prevention as well as safety promotion and injury prevention in urban environments, in transportation, in residential and in recreational and sports activities. The 2009 Activity Rep…

Centre collaborateur OMS pour la promotion de la sécurité et la prévention des traumatismes

Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities: Guide to Direct Observation of Community Safety

There are at least two methods for gaining a first-hand understanding of the situation in a community: direct observation and exploratory walks. Direct observation involves studying the community in order to identify characteristics or situations with nuisance potential (disorderly conduct, incivility, deteriorated physical environment, etc.), while exploratory walks are aimed at assessing urban environments (neighbourhood units, streets, blocks, etc.) from the standpoint of users.

The main purpose of such walks is to determine how a given environment affects the population's feeling of safety and to gauge the extent to which people feel they are at risk of being assaulted. Exploratory walks are designed to establish whether the environment's characteristics enable people to know where they are and where they are going, to see and to be seen, to hear and to be heard, and so forth. The present guide, which is part of the Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities…

Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities: Guide to Organizing Semi-Structured Interviews With Key Informant

Like focus groups, direct observation and literature reviews, semi-structured interviews can be used to gather qualitative information. This guide to organizing semi-structured interviews is part of the Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities. It has been prepared for people who want to plan and conduct this type of interview with key informants during safety diagnoses. The procedure described here may also be used in other contexts provided an appropriate interview plan is designed.

During safety diagnoses, semi-structured interviews should be used to explore crime and safety problems perceived by key informants. In particular, they should focus on the following topics: crime and victimization, disorderly conduct and incivility (nuisances), the perception of safety or the feeling of safety and the assessment of public services.

Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities: Guide to Organizing Focus Groups

This guide was prepared for people who wish to organize focus groups as a part of a safety diagnosis process. However, the procedure described here may also be used with focus groups on other issues, provided an appropriate discussion plan is designed.

Québec WHO Collaborating Centre for Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention : activity Report 2007

The Centre is made up of institutions in the Québec public health network under the scientific coordination of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), which, in conjunction with its mission, establishes links with Canadian and international organizations in order to foster cooperation and the pooling of knowledge. The Collaborating Centre seeks to contribute at the international level to research, development and the dissemination of intersectoral approaches to promote safety and prevent intentional and unintentional injuries.

Centre collaborateur OMS pour la promotion de la sécurité et la prévention des traumatismes