One of today's most pressing issues in criminology and crime prevention is the problem of crime in our cities and towns and its prevention. The topic of crime prevention in the Urban Community was discussed at the 47th International Course of the International Society for Criminology (ISC) held at Chuo University, Tokyo. It was the very first time such an ISC meeting was held in Asia and this meant that finally a relatively large number of Japanese and other Asian participants were able to express their views on criminal policy and crime prevention in urban centres all over the world. Crime in urban communities is not an exclusively Western phenomenon, but it is also a considerable problem in other parts of the world. This makes an interchange of ideas between Western, Eastern and Third-World criminologists particularly important. General characteristics of the urban communities that suffer from a high crime rate are ethnic and racial tensions, a mix of old housing areas and new business districts, a prevailing sense of anonymity, slums and juvenile delinquency.
