[1] ICPC was founded in 1994, initially by the governments of Canada, France and Quebec, and inspired by the work of the French Mayor Gilbert Bonnemaison, who was its first President.
[1] Its members now include a range of national and sub-regional governments from across the world, as well as a Board of international, regional and national organizations, cities, and a wide variety of non-government organizations and associations concerned with issues of crime prevention and community safety.
It encourages countries, cities and institutions to invest in prevention rather than relying on more costly criminal justice responses to crime.
[3] It does this in three main ways: Since it was created ICPC has worked closely with UN-HABITAT and its Safer Cities Programme in particular, and with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), both of which are members of the Centre.
Similarly, ICPC has collaborated extensively with UN-HABITAT on the development of tools and reports including the recent Youth Resource Guide.