Dublin one of the safest cities in the world

DUBLIN is considered one of the safer cities in the world. An international survey rated it 18th, well ahead of many other European cities.

A third of the world's safest cities are in western Europe, with Luxembourg considered the safest along with Milan, Athens and Rome.

However, the survey carried out by a US firm comes with a health warning: it is based on the number of crimes reported to the police and on whether the crime is considered serious or not by the police. Comparing crime in different cities is almost impossible. However, international bodies like the International Crime Prevention Centre, the EU's fledgling Crime Prevention Network, and the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control are all agreed on one thing the solution is not simple.

Major studies have been undertaken in several countries to study why crime has increased so much over the past few decades (by over 400% in places like Sweden), what reduces it and how it can be prevented in future.

Key factors include poverty, poor parenting, school truancy, early school leaving, lack of training and bullying. However, the studies found that solving the problem was not as simple as putting more police on the streets or providing more space in jails.

In Scandinavian countries, vandalism levels have been drastically cut by making young people accountable.

Street fighting and the number of assaults have been reduced by making pub owners more responsible, changing public transport routes and improving street lighting.

Studies also found this approach is more cost effective than jail. For every €1 spent on community- and school-based programmes to encourage the social development of children, young people and families the State saves up to €6.

In Britain, an Audit Commission survey found that it cost more than €10,000 to lock up a young criminal compared with about €7,000 on a programme to help early school-leavers return to school and a little over €1,000 to help them find work.

In Holland, a survey on the most cost effective way of reducing crime by 10% found that social prevention was better than employing an extra €1,000 police or beefing up security systems.

Following the report, the Dutch government allocated €100 million over five years to social prevention programmes.