Crime and Urban Space
Social Disorganisation - Key Ideas
Why do certain areas have high rates of crime and social problems?
Lack of collective social control "collective efficacy"
Isolation from mainstream networks - jobs etc.
Availability of delinquent gangs ("cultural transmission of delinquency")
Racialised process "Sampson 1990) - can we design out crime? - can we design in community?
Crime and Opportunity
Ronald Clarke (1980) - criminological theories about motivation for crime have got it wrong. He states they are imprecise - vague connection between the cause and effect. Dispositions change - impractical
He says crime is an outcome of rational choice and offending is designed to benefit the offender
UNDERLYING IDEA: All of us are potential deviants - however, we make a cost/benefit calculation - we commit crime when there is an opportunity to do so
Benefits: - It has immediate practical use, we can understand why people make choices, AND influence them to make different choices
Routine Activity Theory
Why did crime rates rise from the 1950's? - How is crime situated in everyday life? - "Chemistry of Crime"
Likely offenders + suitable targets ( visible, access, value, inertia ) + absence of capable guardians - must converge in time and space
Routine Activity and Space
Shows how offenders, targets and guardians move into and out of potential crime settings
Implications: How do features of daily life lead to more or less crime? -
Can we deter likely offenders?
Can we reduce suitable targets?
Can we create capable guardians?
Architecture and Design
Defensible Space - Oscar Newman 1973
Encourage the development of collective social control - encourage sense of safety - FOUR key principles - Territoriality, surveillance, image, environment
Criticisms
Not enough attention to the stigma of labelling estates
Ignores policing tactics
Ignores housing policies
Is the threat from outsiders?
Crime and Disorders
Broken Windows (Wilson and Kelling 1982)
People are mostly concerned about public order, crime and disorder are linked - importance of visible crimes (e.g. vandalism) - if they go unchallenged.. lead to breakdown of community controls and breeds further disorder - particularly important if they are signal crimes - (Innes 2004)
"Signal Crimes" - "Yes it is daft, it is almost daft, but graffiti is the sort of thing that bothers me more, because it is in my face everyday. I mean obviously rape and murder are horrendous crimes, but it is graffiti I see" - Innes 2004
Policy Implications of "Broken Windows" thesis
Zero tolerance policy.. policing visible signal crimes?