American Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

All countries around the world take various crime prevention initiatives to control crime to safeguard the peaceful living of their citizens and ensure socio-economic development of the countries. This study aims at studying the nature and trend of crime in Bangladesh and examines the history, structure, operational management, functional process, and success of community policing. It also attempts to investigate the feasibility of practicing community policing in the Bangladeshi context. This study employs a descriptive qualitative research design to collect relevant data using secondary sources. The results show that Bangladesh has been practicing both formal and informal crime prevention mechanisms. Formal crime control uses the law and government agencies, such as police, courts, and prisons to deter crime; while informal crime control employs moral and social institutions such as the family, religion, peers, and neighborhood groups to prevent deviant behaviors. The study also finds that the rapid modernization and substantial urbanization subsided the informal social justice system and strengthen the formal legal institutions. Overall, community policing was found to be a feasible strategy to control crime in Bangladesh with some modification and by improving the existing structure.