The Beccaria-Programme

The Beccaria programme consists of two consecutive projects of the State Prevention Council of Lower Saxony (Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice) in the framework of the AGIS program and the ISECS program of the EU:

1. The "Beccaria Project: Quality Management in Crime Prevention" with five European partner organisations (2003-2005).

2. The "Beccaria Center: Basic and Further Training in Crime Prevention" with eight European partner organisations (2005-2007).

3. The "Beccaria Project: Knowledge Transfer in Crime Prevention" with nine European partner organisations (2008-2011).

The program is named after the philosopher Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794). Beccaria was an advocate for criminal law reform and is considered a pioneer in modern criminology. He emphasized the primacy of preventative crime policy: "It is better to prevent crime than to punish it.“