Governmental Policy in Preventing Crime Against Health and Personal Safety: Bibliometric and Trend Analysis

Ensuring effective government policies to prevent crimes that threaten health and personal safety has become increasingly important amid social instability, technological change, and emerging security risks. This study aims to identify the main research trends, collaboration patterns, and thematic transformations in the field of governmental policy for preventing crimes against health and personal safety through a bibliometric and public interest analysis. The analysis is based on scientific publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, complemented by public interest data from Google Trends and historical frequency analysis using Google Books Ngram Viewer, and examined using Biblioshiny (R Studio), VOSviewer, and CiteSpace. The results reveal several important patterns in the scientific landscape. First, the Google Books Ngram analysis for 2003–2022 shows a consistent increase in the frequency of the term “crime prevention strategies,” with a noticeable peak around 2016, indicating growing academic attention to preventive governance approaches. Second, the thematic evolution analysis shows a significant expansion of research topics after 2010, particularly between 2014 and 2021, when studies on public safety governance and community-based prevention intensified. Third, the CiteSpace clustering analysis identifies five major thematic clusters, with the largest cluster including 17 publications (silhouette score 0.858) focused on violence prevention and public safety policies. Fourth, the bibliometric network analysis highlights a growing emphasis on technology-driven prevention mechanisms, including artificial intelligence, smart city technologies, and digital monitoring systems, which became particularly visible in the literature after 2022. These findings indicate a gradual shift from reactive crime control approaches toward integrated, data-driven governance strategies aimed at protecting health and personal safety.