Ensuring safety during door-to-door public transport trips is a fundamental challenge to service providers as safety influences individuals’ mobility. Using reported safety perceptions of travelers waiting at six bus stops with different characteristics in Stockholm, this study investigates factors that have an impact on determining travelers’ perceived safety and crime perceptions. This is done by assessing the importance of real-time information provision and the environmental characteristics of bus stops during the day and at night for different types of crime, after controlling for travelers’ individual and trip characteristics, and their previous experiences of victimization. Interaction effects of age, gender, and travel frequency are also tested. The results suggest that bus shelter characteristics, natural surveillance, and trustworthy real-time information are the most important factors influencing safety and crime perceptions. Additionally, safety perceptions are strongly influenced by previous experiences of victimization. The effect of perceived feelings about crime and safety are found to be nuanced by age and gender. Unlike some common beliefs, travelers: (1) feel less worried about becoming a victim of crime at bus stops associated with high crime rates; (2) prefer opaque shelters at night; and (3) have higher safety perceptions when the stop is located in an area of mixed land use. The impact of a bus stop’s number of passers-by is found to be insignificant. No direct or indirect effects can be attributed to frequency of travel by bus, indicating that familiar places and routine behavior have noeffect on declared crime and safety perceptions.
This article explores the nature and frequency of crimes and people's safety perceptions in rural areas using a systematic review of the literature. It explores four decades of English-language publications on crime and safety in rural areas from several major databases; mainly Scopus, JSTOR and ScienceDirect. The number of retrieved documents was 840, of which 410 were selected for in-depth analysis and their topics later categorized by theme. We found that rural crime research took off after the mid-1980s and experienced an increase during the 2010s. Despite the domination by North American, British and Australian scholarship, studies from other parts of the world (including the Global South) are increasingly being published as well. Publications on rural crime patterns (e.g., farm crime) compose over one-fifth of the reviewed literature. This together with rural policing/criminal justice and violence constitute the three largest themes in rural criminology research. With ever-increasing links between the local and the global, this review article advocates for tailored multilevel responses to rural crimes that, more than ever, are generated by processes far beyond their localities.
This study investigates the space-temporal growth of homicide rates in Brazil from 2000 to 2017 and identifies determinants of the country?s growth of homicide rates. Data from the Brazilian Information System on Mortality and Censuses are used to estimate growth models combined with spatial statistics and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Findings show evidence of change in the geographical distribution of lethal violence over time, characterized by a steady increase in the North and Northeast regions and a reduction in growth in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil. Social disorganization factors namely deprivation, ethnic heterogeneity, and urbanization are significant positive determinants of the growth of homicide rates. The results show a reduction of the predictive strength of income inequality and an increase in that of unemployment from the year 2010 to 2017. The theoretical and policy implications of these results are discussed.
This study aims to assess the determinants of using safety devices in Brazilian households, taking into account different urban–rural country contexts and income distribution. Probit models are estimated using microdata from the 2009 Brazilian National Household Sampling Survey. On average, less than half of the underprivileged population adopts safety devices, whereas almost double as many do so among the wealthy. Findings also indicate an inverse association between the level of urbanization and adoption of safety protective devices, especially of modern ones—a pattern mediated by individual levels of victimization and safety perceptions. For example, previous victimization by theft or robbery is more decisive for adopting safety protective devices among economically underprivileged households compared to wealthier ones. These results provide evidence of the perverse effects of unequal commodification of security across a country that penalizes, in particular, the rural poor.
This paper investigates the effect of absolute deprivation (proxy unemployment)and relative deprivation (proxy income inequality) on homicide levels in Brazil. Adatabase from the Brazilian Information System about Mortality and Census of theyear 2000 and 2010 was used to estimate negative binomial models of homicidelevels controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and geographic factors. Findingsshow that unemployment and income inequality affect homicides levels and that theeffect of the former is more pronounced compared to the latter. Moreover, thecombination of income inequality and unemployment exacerbates the overall effectof deprivation on homicide levels.
Unwanted-sexual-behaviors (USBs) on Great Britain’s rail network, though often seen as “lesser-harm” incidents, have profound psychological, emotional, and behavioral impacts on victims and witnesses. A national survey reveals these effects, highlighting the traumatizing effect of USBs, even years later. Victims share their dissatisfaction with reporting USBs and the need for empathetic communication in victim recovery and trust in authorities. The study also examines the impact of reassurance callbacks from police. While a single callback enhanced perceptions of safety and police effectiveness, multiple callbacks were favored, suggesting their potential to improve victim support and confidence in law enforcement responses to USBs.
This study assesses the nature and the geography of elderly injuries in Sweden. The most dominant types of accidents affecting the elderly in their homes and near environments are identified by using county-specific data from 2001 to 2010 followed by a correlation analysis of possible environmental factors underlying patterns of falls among the elderly. Geographical information systems are used to map rates by type. Slipping, tripping and stumbling are the causes of more than half of cases of elderly falls in Sweden, and is more typical in the Northern counties. Findings also show there has been a rise in rates of elderly falls since 2001 in most of the Southern counties, especially in Östergötland and Skåne Counties. Population age and gender affect the ecology of geography of fall rates and counties experiencing long cold winters tend to show higher rates of indoor falls than those with warmer temperature across the year. The article finalizes with a discussion of the results and implication for future research.
The study assesses exploratory the geography of the elderly fall in Sweden in relation to the ecology of the socio-demographic characteristics of the Swedes older population. Kendall Test is used to measure the association between elderly fall rates and demographic, socio-economic characteristics of the population, costs of elderly care and accessibility measures at county level. Results show a number of significant associations: high rates of the elderly fall are associated with high cost of the elderly care but also low rate of elderly fall and good accessibility to basic services (e.g., grocery store, health care and cash machines). The articles finalizes with reflections of the results and suggestions for future research.
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world. It also has one of the world’shighest birth rates. Until recently there has been virtually no way to studyMozambique’s high fertility because of the civil war. This paper uses a very recentsurvey of Mozambican women from 1997. The objective of this paper is to assess theimpact of modernization on fertility in Mozambique, using as a background the“supply-demand theory” presented by Easterlin and Crimmins (1985). The first part ofthis paper describes the indicators of modernization for Mozambique by using maps,and indicates eventual correlations. The second part deals with the estimation ofequations for demand for children, the supply of children and the use of contraception.The third part shows how the modernization variables visualized in the first part of thepaper influence all these equations. The results show that the country has one of thehighest demands for children in the world, but also one of the largest supply of children,followed by high infant and child mortality. In many provinces, the regulation costs arestill high. Those who deliberately use contraceptives already have many children.Among the modernization variables, education is the factor that most affects supply,demand and also regulation costs in Mozambique.
This book is about crime and community safety in rural areas. Crime is oftenregarded as an urban rather than a rural issue. Is this because rural areas are saferthan urban areas? We suggest in this book that even if they are, this is just apartial view of what safety in rural communities is or what it is perceived to be.The relationship between crime and community characteristics is complex,determined by a set of interdependent factors that, together, create nuanced differencesof what is thought to be safety in rural areas. The chapter defines theaim, scope, and structure of the book.
Abstract This chapter provides an introduction to the theme of crime and fear in public places, the book scope, steps taken in the making of the book, key definitions, and the synopsis of the chapters. This chapter also illustrates how this edited volume contributes to the current knowledge by examining the evidence of victimization and fear in public places from an interdisciplinary perspective with examples from the Global North-South contexts, considering theories at the crossroads of several disciplines.
Place is a predictor of victimization. Crime more often happens in places other thanin the private sphere. For women, however, the home tends to be more dangerousthan any other place. Women are threatened and assaulted most often where theyreside, by someone they know, in acts often classified as “violence againstwomen.” In rural areas, women are less likely to report this kind of violence, fornumerous reasons. For instance, long distances create isolation to a greater degreethan in urban areas. This chapter points out the barriers women living in rural areasface when reporting violence, particularly when the perpetrator is known to thevictim. This is followed by a brief discussion of international urban–rural trends inrates of violence against women. Then, the chapter provides a basis for the analysisof the Swedish case by presenting a list of individual and structural factors that aredeterminants of violence against women in rural areas.
One reason this chapter is devoted to rural policing is the difference in policework and organization. More than 40 years ago, Cain (1973) highlighted the distinctivenessof rural policing, with its isolating and lonesome nature, and thedependence on one’s neighbors and community within which the police lived.Rural crime issues are very different nowadays from those in the 1970s, and certainlyrurality is a complex mix that imposes new demands on policing that gobeyond issues of remoteness and isolation. Policing is no longer a job for thepublic police force only. Yet “(t)here has always been, and still is, a differencebetween police work and organization in urban and rural areas” (Furuhagen,2009, p. 13)Mawby (2011) suggests that in many countries only a small proportion ofpolicing is carried out by police officers especially trained by the central or localgovernment. Alternative policing has not emerged at pace with this change orevenly distributed across or within countries. This chapter starts with an internationaloverview of what the police have been, with particular focus on thehistorical development of the rural police as an institution. This is an importantsubject, as Mawby and Yarwood (2011, p. 1) suggest “studies of rural policinghave fallen off the edge of many research agendas.” This chapter also provides adetailed history of the development of policing in Swedish rural areas and discussesexamples of the contemporary daily work of police with crime, crime prevention,and community safety, focusing on Sweden. Then, the chapter ends with a discussion of future challenges for policing in the Swedish countryside, asthe commodification of policing has become a reality and the police organizationis being centralized.
This chapter takes the issues of Chapter 8 forward by discussing the main crimeprevention initiatives related to farm crimes and environmental and wildlifecrimes (EWC). These crimes and their prevention are rarely in the headlines,which is not surprising given that in most countries crime control and preventionstrategies focus on big-city problems. The role of community in dealing withfarm crime and EWC in rural municipalities through crime prevention initiativesis given special attention. First, farm crimes and EWCs are framed taking intoaccount a selection of international studies followed by examples from Sweden.Then the chapter turns to new forms of surveillance and protest against farmcrime and EWC using ICT and social media.
To frame the Swedish case, this chapter briefly reviews some of the currentinternational literature in criminology on crime prevention activities aimed atyouth in rural settings. The role of community in dealing with the problem inrural municipalities through crime prevention initiatives is given special attention.The chapter closes with examples from the Swedish rural context and concludingremarks.
The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, the chapter discusses the actionsunder way to address violence against women in Sweden, following the conclusionsabout violence against women presented in Chapter 10. To frame theSwedish case, this chapter briefly reviews some of the current international literaturein criminology on actions countering violence against women. Particularfocus is on the role of the community through crime prevention initiatives totackle the problem in rural municipalities. Secondary data, email surveys, mediaexcerpts, and face-to-face interviews are used to illustrate current initiatives toprevent violence against women in rural settings. The chapter concludes withexamples of good practice in Swedish rural contexts and closing remarks.
This chapter brings together the content of this book and gives an overview ofthe main conclusions drawn. This chapter pays special attention to issues ofyouth in rural areas, farm crime, and crime against environment and wildlife, aswell as cases of violence against women, with particular focus on Swedish ruralareas. Crosscutting issues are summarized in this chapter before new researchfrontiers are suggested and conclusions drawn.
This theoretical review is intended to support the analysis of the empirical research illustrated in the five cross-cutting themes of the book derived from a wide range of perspectives and disciplines. We begin by discussing the concept of public places in relation to the dynamics of urban crime and fear. Then, we concentrate on those aspects considered salient to the major components of the book: the city environment, people’s mobility, users’ perspective, metrics of crime and, fear and, intervention.
This chapter starts by listing 10 reasons why crime and safety in rural areas is asubject worth examining in its own right. These 10 reasons guide the themes discussedin this book and are developed in detail in Chapters 3–14.
A central issue in urban planning is how to ensure good references for decisions and processes that lead to the design and planning of safe public environments. Despite increasing safety challenges in cities in the Nordic countries, knowledge is lacking about municipalities’ work with safety issues in daily planning practices. This chapter makes a contribution to this knowledge base by reporting the answers from surveys collected from 85% of municipalities in Sweden in 2019. The focus is on the incorporation of situational crime prevention principles into planning practices, in particular, crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Findings from the data analysis reveals differences in answers from planners working in urban and rural municipalities. Findings show that planners believe that safety is an important issue, but how it is dealt with in these municipalities vary greatly
The aim of this chapter is to discuss the evidence in the international literature of the effects of urban design features on safety. More specifically, this research examines the relationship between features such as lighting and CCTV to the occurrence of crime and/or individuals’ safety perceptions. Potential unexpected side effects of these features on a city’s overall quality are also discussed. To achieve these goals, the literature from 1968 to 2018 was searched using as references the Scopus, Web of Science, and JSTOR databases. A bibliometric visualization software (VOSviewer) was used to manage and map the vast material, spanning more than five decades of research, on crime and fear of crime. This pre-selection of topics was thought to be relevant for further investigation in an in-depth analysis of the 106 articles. The chapter identifies gaps in the literature and suggestions for a research agenda and practice.
This chapter has four sections. The first section offers a number of basic definitionsin rural criminology used in this book. In some cases, several definitionsare put forward instead of assuming a single definition. The case of “rural” providesan example of this approach. The second section is devoted to a number oftheories that provide the theoretical basis for the book. Each theory is introducedin a way that highlights its importance for rural studies, particularly on crime,perceived safety, and crime prevention. In the third section, the chapter takes apractical turn and focuses on the making of research on crime and safety in ruralareas. This section discusses issues of measurement and data quality that areused later in the book. Finally, in the fourth section Sweden is introduced asstudy area.
The aim of this chapter is to identify and assess the nature of published, peer-reviewed literature in English on the relationship between green areas (parks, forests, neighborhood parks, green vacant land, interstitial spaces) and crime and perceived safety. This goal is achieved by performing a systematic literature overview from 1968 to 2018 from the major databases and respond to the following questions: (1) Which are the most common types of the green areas associated with crime and/or poor perceived safety in the international literature? (2) Do green areas affect the occurrence of crime and disorder, and if so, how? (3) Do green areas impact on perceived safety and, if so, what are the mechanisms? The chapters concludes with a discussion of policy and research recommendations.
Chapter 5 starts showing the changing rates and geography of a selected groupof offenses by municipalities in Sweden. Police records are used as the mainsource of the analysis but reference is also made as much as possible to theNational Crime Victim Surveys. This chapter aims at improving the knowledgebase regarding the rates and spatial distribution of crimes in Sweden. Focus isgiven to shifts in geography between rural (remote and accessible) and to urbanmunicipalities (especially Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö), and vice versa.Geographical information systems (GIS) and spatial statistics techniques areused to assess concentration of thefts and violence. There is an inequality in victimizationthat is worth highlighting as trends in crime may impress differentgeographies in space.Which are the main factors behind the geography of crime in Sweden? Arethese factors in urban areas different from the ones found in rural municipalities?Following the main strand of theories in environmental criminology, the secondsection of this chapter searches for factors that can explain the spatial arrangementof crime. Crime rates are modeled cross-sectionally as a function of themunicipalities’ structural indicators, such as demography, socioeconomic conditions,and lifestyles. Note that this chapter is based on previous work publishedby the author with the criminologist Lars Dolmén in 20111 but it makes an effortto take distance from the previous study by expanding the analysis, includingdetailed analysis of property crime and updating the violence section with newstatistics. The chapter ends with a discussion of unanswered questions about thegeography of crime in Sweden and the methodological challenges of analysingthe regional distribution of crime using police recorded data at municipal level.Finally, a relevant issue that is also discussed in the final section of this chapteris the adequacy of current criminological theory in supporting the analysis ofcrime dynamics that go beyond the urban and/or neighborhood contexts.
Imagine that some farmers declare they are worried about having their livestockstolen. Should this be enough to influence crime prevention efforts by the localpolice force? Or consider the case of a woman who is in fear because of constantthreats from her violent partner. Should her fear be taken seriously by workers insocial services or the police to avoid something more serious happening?Fear of crime is not typically considered a conventional policing matter andseems to be even less of an issue in rural communities. One reason for thisneglect is that the police, as well as those who devote their time to crime prevention,often work reactively, requiring an offense to be committed before anyaction can be taken. Another problem is that fear (of crime) may be triggered bythe trauma of victimization, though that is not its only source. Anxieties are fedby multi-scale factors. This chapter examines how the multifaceted nature of fearmakes perceived safety a difficult issue to tackle. Instead of denying such complexity,this chapter attempts to provide examples of how such anxieties formand are associated with the fear of crime in rural environments in Sweden. “Perceivedsafety” is a general concept used in this chapter to characterize both fearof crime and other overall anxieties, often measured by safety and crime victims’surveys.Lack of perceived safety – or, more specifically, fear of crime – has been thesubject of interdisciplinary research for many decades, but the results are farfrom unproblematic. Crime victims’ surveys and interviews are often the basisof this type of research, which has been criticized for offering a shallow pictureof what fear is actually is. This chapter examines fear as an informative resourcethat may improve quality of life for those living in rural communities. If fear is areflection of everyday life experiences, what are those experiences in ruralcommunities?
People fear crime less in rural areas than they do in urban areas. It is submittedthat this fact represents a partial picture of perceived safety, because people canfear greatly even if they perceive a slim likelihood of crime actually occurring.In this chapter, instead of reducing the issue of perceived safety to risk of victimization,the discussion is placed in a broader context with particular attentionto rural areas in Sweden. As previously stated, “perceived safety” is a generalconcept used in this book to characterize both fear of crime and other overallanxieties captured by different indicators of fear and anxiety. The chapter looksbeyond actual statistics of perceived safety between rural and urban areas inorder to shed light on the nature of fear among people living in rural areas. Thechapter includes critical analysis of two examples of expression of fear in relationto the process of othering in the Swedish country side: Sami youth (the oldother), followed by the berry pickers (the new other). In order to illustrate inmore detail patterns of perceived safety, two non-metropolitan municipalities:Jönköping and Söderköping are discussed in this chapter. The chapter closeswith suggestions for possible further research on fear of crime in rural contexts.
This chapter deals with two topics that are relatively neglected areas of researchin the criminological literature: farm crime, and environmental and wildlifecrime. The chapter has two sections, and both place Sweden in an internationalcontext. These offenses involve from diesel theft to drug manufacture, but alsocases of crimes and harm against nature, such as illegal hunting. They presenttrends over time using Swedish police statistics and, data permitting, alternativedata sources. Finally, geographical patterns of environmental and wildlife crimes(EWC) are discussed focusing mostly on urban–rural differences.
Young people are vital for any type of society – but certainly more important forrural communities as their future depends on them. If young people cannot continueliving in these communities, the demand for services and other types ofconsumption decreases, and consequently the community breaks down. Paradoxically,young people are far too often seen as a source of local problems.This chapter attempts to characterize both sides of this coin using available officialstatistics. It starts with demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle differencesamong young individuals in Sweden as background for understandingregional differences in offending and victimization among youth. This is followedby a discussion of factors associated with youth crime and victimizationin rural areas; apparently they are similar to those in urban areas. As much aspossible, the Swedish case is compared with the international literature, oftenfrom examples coming from British and North American research. The systemicnature of criminogenic conditions that is relevant for small municipalities inSweden is exemplified here by two phenomena.
No city environment reflects the meaning of urban life better than a public place. A public place, whatever its nature—a park, a mall, a train platform or a street corner—is where people pass by, meet each other and at times become a victim of crime. With this book, we submit that crime and safety in public places are not issues that can be easily dealt with within the boundaries of a single discipline. The book aims to illustrate the complexity of patterns of crime and fear in public places with examples of studies on these topics contextualized in different cities and countries around the world. This is achieved by tackling five cross-cutting themes: the nature of the city’s environment as a backdrop for crime and fear; the dynamics of individuals’ daily routines and their transit safety; the safety perceptions experienced by those who are most in fear in public places; the metrics of crime and fear; and, finally, examples of current practices in promoting safety. All these original chapters contribute to our quest for safer, more inclusive, resilient, equitable and sustainable cities and human settlements aligned to the Global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The aim of this book is to demonstrate the importanceof crime and safety in areas on the rural-urban continuum in general, and froma social sustainability perspective in particular. This aim is achieved by first outlining20 reasons as to why crime and safety matter, which also serves to delineate thefield of research and illustrate its complexity, with many interdisciplinary ramifications.Then, by reviewing the international literature, the book reports four decadesof English-language studies within the field and, finally, presents a research agendawhich takes into consideration emergent areas of research, implications for practice,and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Expanding our knowledgeon rural crime and safety is not only an important step for the future of criminology,but a prerequisite for ever obtaining a truly sustainable society.
The way spatial information has been approached by literature in crimeanalysis varies highly, following both the development of urban criminologyas a discipline (Shaw and McKay 1942, Newman 1972, Cohen andFelson 1979, Brantingham and Brantingham 1991, Sampson et al. 1997,Wikström 2003, 2004) and the diffusion of spatial technologies such asGeographic Information Systems (GIS) in human sciences (Haining1990, 2003, Anselin 1999, Fotheringham and Rogerson 2002, Chaineyand Ratcliffe 2006). In this article, I review how certain notions of spacehave been incorporated into urban criminology research using GIS.
This article compares levels and patterns of offences in different parts of Lithuaniawith the aim of assessing whether border regions are more susceptible to crimethan the rest of the country. The article focuses on identifying and explainingthese patterns for selected categories of offences while taking account ofcontextual factors. Spatial statistical techniques and Geographic InformationSystems underpin the methodology employed. Findings suggest that there arevariations in the level and geography of offences between border regions and therest of the country. Despite the fact that the highest average increases in recordedcriminal offences were found in two border regions, non-border regions had ahigher average increase in the 1990s. This partially explains why, out of the sixselected offences, only assault shows an increase owing to the ‘border effect’. Theproportion of the population living in urban areas is by far the most importantcovariate in explaining the regional variations in offence ratios.
The objective of this article is to characterise the criminogenic conditions of an eastern European city experiencing the transition from a planned to a market-oriented economy. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has been chosen as the case study. The article first describes the various levels of a set of expressive and acquisitive offences in Tallinn and then assesses whether patterns of crime in Tallinn are caused by underlying processes similar to the ones indicated in the Western literature of urban criminology. The study identifies variables that most significantly contribute to the variation of crime ratios using regression models, GIS and spatial statistical techniques. Findings suggest that, although there is no dramatic difference between the geography of crimes in Tallinn and those found in western European and North American cities, some of the explanatory variables function in ways which would not be predicted by Western literature.
The article investigates personal safety conditions in the Sa˜o Paulo metro,the largest rapid transit system in Brazil. The study looks at all types of crimes, butdevotes special attention to the nature and spatio-temporal dynamics of sexualcrimes against women while in transit. The methodology combines GeographicalInformation System and crime records with data collected using Google Street Viewand other secondary data into a set of regression models. Findings show that sexualviolence is concentrated at the busiest central stations; it often takes place during themorning and afternoon rush hours, and at stations that also attract all sorts ofviolence and events of public disorder. The study finalises with an analysis of themetro’s current prevention practices targeting women’s sexual victimisation.
笔者通过评估瑞典斯德哥尔摩和巴西圣保罗地铁系统的犯罪活动及扰乱公共秩序行为案例，探讨相关经 验教训。对比 2 个国家地铁系统的时空犯罪模式及上述案例的研究结果，总结环境对犯罪活动及扰乱公共秩序行为的影响。研究中地理信息系统、田野调查和建模等分析过程应用了相应地铁运营商的基础数据。研究发现 市中心地铁站及终点站往往比其他站点更容易发生犯罪。除了区位因素，地铁站的环境属性、周边环境及社区 环境也会影响站点的犯罪机会。预防犯罪的干预措施必须针对具体犯罪活动、核心地铁站的拥挤情况，特别是 易发生犯罪的高峰时段制定。以此总结今后相关研究方向，并提出相应政策建议。
The objective of this article is to report experiences of local crime prevention initiatives onviolence against women in rural Sweden. The study relies on a combination of secondary dataand surveys. Although violence against women is higher in urban areas, rural municipalitiesare showing more cases than in the past. The geography of violence against women is farfrom being homogeneous across the country, reflecting not only population structuraldifferences but also local and regional capabilities of criminal justice and society overallconditions to deal with this type of violence. Beyond the problems imposed by geographicalisolation, some of the challenges shared by those working with violence against women inrural areas are limited resources to assist victims and difficulties in putting in practice nationalpolicy guidelines. The article concludes with a summary of results and suggestions for futureresearch.
In this chapter, “violence” refers to general acts of aggression. In most of the studies discussedhere, however, violence means lethal violence or homicide, because homicides constitute amore robust set of records in official statistics compared with overall violence. Also, homicidein itself is interesting because it can be a good indicator of well-being and wider socialconditions.
Stockholm is one of the most accessible cities in Europe. This Scandinavian capital received the 2013 Access City award for disabled-friendly cities, a third place after Berlin and Nantes, France. However, the goal of providing safe mobility for all remains a challenge. People with one or more disabilities report being victims of assault and robbery twice as often as the general population. They avoid going out after dark because they are afraid of being exposed to crime more often than the rest of the population. The elderly, women and the disabled are often pointed out as being more fearful than other groups of passengers. The aim of this paper is to report on the safety conditions for passengers who report themselves as having a disability using data from different sources. The study also illustrates a number of initiatives that are intended to provide safe mobility for all, both from the perspective of those who are responsible for the delivery of transportation services and from those who use the system. The paper finishes with a discussion of current challenges both in practice and research.
This article presents trends inexpressive crimes in Estonia,Latvia, and Lithuania from1993 to 2000 and examines howdemographic, socio-economic,land use, and institutional factorsrelate to their geography in2000. Geographical InformationSystem (GIS) and spatial regressionmodels are employed in thestudy, which make use of countryregions as the unit of analysis.Issues concerning crime dataavailability and quality are discussed.While police official statisticsshow a significant rise inrates of expressive crime in theBaltic countries during the 1990s(with the exception of homicide),victimization crime surveys indicatethat there have been nosignificant changes in crimelevels and composition. Resultsalso show that indicators ofregions’ social structure, suchas divorce rate, more stronglypredict the variation of 2000’sexpressive crime ratios thanother indicators, such as landuse and economic covariates.Most of these covariates functionin ways which are predicted byWestern literature on crime geography.
This article explores the concept of surveillance by assessing the nature of data gathered by users of a smartphone-based tool (app) developed in Sweden to assist citizens in reporting incidents in public spaces. This article first illustrates spatial and temporal patterns of records gathered over 9 months in Stockholm County using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to exemplify the process of sousveillance via app. Then, the experiences of user group members, collected using an app-based survey, are analyzed. Findings show that the incident reporting app is more often used to report an incident and less often to prevent it. Preexistent social networks in neighborhoods are fundamental for widespread adoption of the app, often used as a tool in Neighborhood Watch schemes in high-crime areas. Although the potentialities of using app data are open, these results call for more in-depth evaluations of smartphone data for safety interventions.
This chapter discusses the nature of fear of crime by placing it in a broader context using Swedish rural areas as a case study. It focuses on particular groups in Swedish rural areas: the farmers, the Sami young adults and local residents in relation to temporary newcomers, the 'berry pickers'. The chapter also discusses how fear and anxieties take shape by looking at particular groups. Anxieties are fed by multi-scale factors, which make fear a difficult issue to be tackled as a policing matter. However, fear of crime and other overall anxieties are rarely considered as priority issues by these local crime prevention councils. Equally important is to better understand the mechanisms linking everyday practices with othering and discrimination as generators of fears and other anxieties. The inflow of berry pickers is characterised by a number of fears. Berry pickers have long been associated with images of crime and problems of social order in the Swedish media.
This study reports on experiences using fieldwork protocols (FPs) in guiding the inventory of safety conditions in public places. Relying on theories of environmental criminology, situational crime prevention, and crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), FPs are used to collect data on-site for three different types of public places: subway stations, shopping centers and parks. The fieldwork data are compared with other data sources and mapped using geographical information system (GIS) technology or building information modeling (BIM). Based on criteria of validity, reliability, and generalizability of evidence collected on-site, the study shows that FPs are better suited for environments that follow some uniform structure (subway stations) than other types of public places (urban parks). The article concludes with lessons for using FPs in guiding data collection for safety inventories and recommendations for future research.
The objective of this article is to discuss the use of Geographical Information (GI) and spatial analyticalmethodologies in urban safety research and planning. Based on previous empirical examples, the article discusses advances and challenges of studying crime and perceived safety using GI and spatial analytical methodologies. Thearticles reviews the analysis of crime and perceived fear at the micro-level landscape followed by a discussion of ecological studies often searching for associations between socio-economic characteristics of small areas. The use ofGI and visualisation techniques has also been incorporated into research and planning in public participation schemes and, more recently, into new methodologies aiming at predicting human movement patterns using real-timedata. The paper also reviews some of the current challenges for spatial urban safety research and concludes with prospects on the value of this form of analysis in the near future.
Knowing where crime takes place or how it is distributed over time and space can be important to understanding its nature and helping experts tackle it. In this chapter, we discuss the use of geographical information (GI), in particular Geographical Information Systems (GIS), in rural criminological research. We report methodological challenges and opportunities with a number of examples from the current literature, from a risk map of drug-related crimes to remote-sensing data in the investigation of environmental and wildlife crimes (EWC). We finalize the chapter by reaching forward to what lies ahead in terms of research frontiers.