Search Results (3)

In post-pandemic, climate-changing societies, the presence of urban greenspace assumes paramount functions, at the same time that socio-economic crises and shocks augment vulnerabilities and insecurities. The recent literature on environmental criminology argues that the geography of crime is not random, and that the presence of greenery, due to its impact on well-being and the environment, can have positive associations with feeling safe; although the opposite effect can occur if spaces are not properly designed or maintained. In this paper, the case study of Porto, Portugal, is presented; one of the municipalities with higher crime rates, that also pledged to double the available greenspace in the near future. As a way to support decision-making, the aim of this study was to present an overall exploratory diagnosis of how street crime patterns, of different typologies, spatially co-exist with greenspaces. Using a 10-year street crime dataset at the segment level, descriptive quantitative methods with the support of GIS have been applied to plot crime’s spatial distribution over time, as well as the walking accessibility to greenspaces. The results confirm crime’s geographical non-randomness, with distinct categories occupying specific locations, even though there was a consistently proportional distribution in the different distance bands. On the contrary, the cumulative effect of the proximity to greenspaces was variable. Almost half of the city’s street crimes (46%) were within a 5 min walking distance of greenspaces, but they were much closer to smaller inner-city urban gardens, with higher densities of street crimes (hot spots), than to larger municipal parks, where lower densities (cold spots) were seen. Full article

The primary purpose of this paper is to test the applicability of environmental criminology in South Korea. Moreover, it explores effective strategies from a spatial planning perspective by taking control of diverse spatial planning factors. The study area is South Korea, and the base year is 2016. A spatial econometric model is built to analyze the relationship between the built environment and three crimes (theft, violence, and sexual assault). As a result, the best spatial regression models for violent crime rate and sexual assault rate are a spatial error model (SEM) and a spatial autoregressive model (SAC), respectively. The most prominent finding is that the regression results in the three crimes are slightly different. The broken windows effect was negligible for significant crimes in South Korea. The influence of regional disorders on the incidence of crimes was marginal. In the three crime types, mixed land use affected rising crime rates, which aligns with some previous studies that mixed land use increases the likelihood of crime incidences. In contrast with a series of relevant works, brighter nighttime light has not effectively decreased crimes in South Korea. In South Korea, closed-circuit television (CCTV) did not play a role in deterring crimes. Lastly, socio-economic characteristics were closely connected with crime rates in South Korea. The theft rate, violent crime rate, and sexual assault rate confirm the reliability of environmental criminology. Although this study has examined the likelihood of applying environmental criminology, further research and discussions are followed for concrete plans. Full article

Criminologists and social scientists have long sought to explain why crime rates vary across urban landscapes. By dissecting the city into neighbourhood units, consideration has been given to the comparable features of settings under study which may help to explain why measured crime is higher in certain areas as compared to others. Some, from the socio-spatial perspective, argue that the socio-demographic makeup of a neighbourhood influences the social processes within it relevant to the disruption of crime. Others posit that physical features of neighbourhood settings, which include its layout, architectural design, and more specific measures to ‘target harden’ buildings against property crimes, can exhibit a deterrent effect. Whilst these explanations profess discrete empirical support, little has been done to consider how these influences may come to explain neighbourhood crime rates concomitantly. In this article, I seek to develop a new socio-physical model in an attempt to integrate and appraise aspects of these domains and their purported ability to explain variations in recorded crime. To achieve this, I use Collective Efficacy theory as a central organising concept which can aid researchers in interrogating current findings. I conclude that the dichotomy between how neighbourhood settings can be both defended, and be defensible, can be addressed by considering the relevance of social cohesion in activating resident social control. Full article