Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

68
Urban crime and violence
Type of violence Number a Rate per 100,000 Proportion of
individuals b
total
(percentage)
Homicide 520,000 8.8 31.3
Suicide 815,000 14.5 49.1
War related 310,000 5.2 18.6
Total c 1,659,000 28.8 100.0
Low- to middle-income countries 1,510,000 32.1 91.1
High-income countries 149,000 14.4 8.9
Table 3.5
Table 3.5 Estimated
global violence-related
deaths (2000)
Notes: a Rounded to nearest
1000.
b Age standardized.
c Includes 14,000 intentional
injury deaths resulting from
legal intervention.
Source: Krug et al, 2002, p10
The speed of
urbanization is
significantly associated
with increased
crime rates in some
of the world’s
regions
Figure 3.19
Family income and
relatives murdered
(Brazil)
Note: MW = minimum wage:
approximately US$175 per
month at time of publication.
Source: Zaluar, 2007
prosperity are associated with increasing levels of property
crimes. Similarly, within cities, more prosperous areas or
neighbourhoods often account for a larger proportion of
property crimes. Relative to individual prosperity, recent
research suggests that the wealth of an individual is closely
connected to the risk of becoming a crime victim. In
countries with high levels of income inequality, the risk of
individual crime victimization is higher than in countries
with less inequality. 137
Gender, racial, ethnic and religious inequalities are
also major factors in violence perpetrated against women
and minorities. While the venue of violence against women
and children is often the home, racial, ethnic and religious
inequality generally plays out in community settings. In this
context, an egregious example is the atrocities committed in
Rwanda by ethnic Hutu groups against Tutsis, where it is
estimated that as many as 800,000 people were massacred.
Pace of urbanization
While early research failed to substantiate a relationship
between crime and the pace of urbanization, 138 more recent
studies have found that the speed of urbanization is significantly
associated with increased crime rates in some of the
world’s regions. For instance, results from a survey of 17
Latin American countries indicate that households located in
areas experiencing high levels of growth are more likely to
be victimized than those in communities with stable populations.
139 In Latin America, city growth is seen as a very
stronger indicator of crime rates. 140 These findings suggest
that there may be a wider association between urbanization
and crime in certain high-growth regions.
The impacts of rapid urbanization also extend beyond
direct victimization. People in rapidly growing cities of Latin
America have diminished confidence in police officials and
the judiciary to resolve problems. 141 Thus, rapid development
places increased pressures on the ability of authorities
to meet public security and safety demands. When expectations
are not met, citizens become cynical and distrustful of
public institutions. This is especially important since almost
all of the world’s urban growth in the next two decades will
be absorbed by cities of the developing world, whose public
institutions are least equipped to deal with the challenges of
rapid urbanization.
Moreover, the rate of urbanization is related to the
pace at which people change households – population instability
– which is strongly associated with crime. Rapidly
growing urban centres are typically places where there is a
high turnover of people and where social coherence is less
stable and ‘protective’ as an informal social control for criminal
behaviour. Thus, being ‘transient’ is a significant risk and
an enabling factor associated with organized and common
crime in urban areas and especially where ‘illegal
immigrants, drug dealers and sex workers tend to congregate’.
142 For instance, almost half of Port Moresby’s (Papua
New Guinea) urban population of 330,000 live in squatter
settlements most are relatively recent in-migrants to the city.
These settlements are considered to be the main sources of
criminal activity in the city. The problems are compounded
by poverty, the lack of formal-sector employment, low confidence
in public authorities to provide protection and justice,
and the destabilization of traditional social and cultural
systems found in village councils and courts. 143 The
burgeoning growth of São Paulo, Brazil, offers another
example of the disruptive effects of rapid population growth
and change, as shown in Box 3.3.
Projections indicate that the pace of urbanization is
most rapid in the less developed regions of Africa and Asia.
Smaller urban settlements of less than 500,000 and
medium-sized cities between 1 million and 5 million are
growing faster than megacities. Existing urban areas of
Africa, Asia and Latin America are projected to have the
largest increases in urban populations by 2030. Yet, these
are regions whose institutions – including planning, criminal
justice, social service and infrastructure systems – are least
equipped to deal with rapid urbanization. All of this invariably
suggests impacts in terms of increases in slum and
squatter settlements, street children and crime within urban
centres struggling to provide adequate public services
(including security and justice systems) to existing residents.
Percentage of residents with murdered relatives
8
6
4
2
0
2 x MW 2–4 x MW 4–7 x MW 7–11 x MW >11 MW
City size and density
If the relationship between the pace of urbanization and
crime is not completely understood, the same can be said
about the highly complex connections between city size,
density and crime. Nevertheless, there is little question that
more people are increasingly vulnerable to crime and
violence in many large urban areas than ever before. A fundamental
theory is that city size and density are in themselves
directly associated with social pathologies, including
crime. 144 There is evidence that city size and crime rates are
related. 145 However, this relationship is likely to be more
pronounced in developing countries vis-à-vis developed