THE CENTER FOR CRIME AND PUBLIC SAFETY STUDIES is an institution directed to the development, implementation, follow-up and critical evaluation of public policies concerning criminal justice. It is linked to the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), and is made up of researches from this institution and is made up of researches from this institution and from law enforcement public agencies. Its structure includes a General Coordinator, a Sub-coordinator and three Coordination Officies in charge of CRISP's three main activities: Courses, Research and Information Coordination Offices. These areas work together to accomplish CRISP's central purposes, namely:



· To play an active role int he qualification of public security professionals.



· To develop applied and methodological research of high technical quality focused on problems an issues relevant to crime control.



· To help build more appropriate information systems for crime control stategies.



The main innovation introduced by CRISP is a model that integrates two elements. On the one hand, applied research, multidisciplinatity and a solid formation i quantitative data analysis for planning and evaluation. On the other hand, articulating different institutions and public agencies deling with crime and violence - all this under the leadership of a university of the highest academic prestige.



The courses offered by CRISP seek to fill gaps in the public security field in Brazil by forming a critical body of researches and policymakers within the crime and justce agencies. The course Crime Analyst, for instance, is unique in Brazil and is based on the most modern foreign experiences of the kind.



The lack of applied research on violence and crime as well as of a more systematic formation in public policy analysis in the field of criminal justice has been an obstacle to the development of programs and policies more appropriate for crime control. In order to overcome this problem, CRISP has been trying to focus its activities on researches both of academic and policymaking interest. The development of applied research is unusual in the crime research community. This fact has usually resulted in lightweight diagnosis of the public security problems.



CRISP also organizes crime databases userful for Brazilian crime justice agencies. Special highlight goes to the organization of point data of crimes in the major city of Belo Horizonte. This is a unique effort in Brazil and has become a reference on crime space analysis and on crime mapping.



In the last few years, CRISP has played an increasingly important role in technical and academic support as well as an outstanding formation center for the organizations of the criminal justice system. In fact, it has become a reference in the formation of police officers in Minas Gerais, as well as in other Brazilian states such as Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Mato Grosso. Recently, important partnerships have been made with other organizations of the justice system, in order to develop diagnosis of prisons and to train the correction system staff.



CRISP has therefore effectively contributed for improving and reshaping the police organizations, as it has made possible their access to tecnologies able to introduce new perspectives in public security management. Professional and experts in that field already acknowledge the strategies of CRISP - developed police information management as a model to be adopted by other police organizations.