Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Urban crime and violence: Policy responses
93
and violence since the evidence suggests that this may well
be one of the most important needs in the urban areas of the
developing world.
One of the ways in which these processes can be
helped is through partnering with cities in other parts of the
world that have relevant experience to offer in order to learn
from that experience and also to speed up processes of
capacity development. An important issue here is the need
to borrow from experiences that are appropriate to local
circumstances. A good illustration of this is the discussion of
the extent to which planning systems (mainly) in the developed
world are beginning to address crime prevention as an
issue where they can have an impact through their control
over physical development.
Even so, there were still many worries about how
effective and how efficient the planning systems were, 35 and
clear evidence that not all planners have responded
constructively to messages about the role of planning in
tackling issues of crime prevention. 36 These facts alone
would suggest the need for a degree of caution before much
younger, much less well-established, and much less wellstaffed
planning systems attempt to do what the British
system is trying to do (see Box 4.3), even if they felt it was
wholly appropriate to their local situations. Indeed, it may
well be the case that one of the important issues in this field
is the extent to which planning systems in the developing
world are able to build concerns for crime prevention into
their work. If they do not encompass crime prevention
concerns, then that is one of the potential tools available for
tackling crime and violence issues that will not be used. But
clearly there are significant issues to be addressed before
such practices are part of the planning lexicon in most parts
of the world. This is further addressed in Chapter 10.
URBAN GOVERNANCE
STRUCTURES AND
PROCESSES
Tackling crime and violence is an issue of good urban governance.
This section focuses on three issues. First, it
examines some of the influences which affect the ability of
processes of urban governance to address issues of crime
and violence in their localities, when they are not in control
of all the programmes or agencies that might need to
contribute to such an effort. Therefore, it is about some of
the challenges that crime and violence issues pose for urban
governance. Second, it looks at two examples of efforts to
undertake programmes of this nature in localities that have
been very seriously affected by crime and violence: Diadema
in the São Paulo metropolitan area of Brazil, and Port
Moresby in Papua New Guinea. Finally, it discusses one of
the big challenges that efforts of this kind too often face,
which is the problem of corruption, both in the process of
municipal government and directly in police operations.
It is important to note that in most cases the
processes of urban governance involve exercising various
types of control or influence over many of the levers that are
available for use in tackling crime and violence. For example,
while the arrangements for controlling the work of the
police service vary from one country to another, and often
involve structures covering much wider areas than individual
cities, it is not unusual to see within such structures arrangements
that acknowledge the particular issues experienced in
the city and that provide for close working links between the
police and the local authority. Similarly, attempts to get
planning systems, by virtue of their control over new development,
to consider crime prevention as part of this process
almost always, in practice, happen at local authority level
since this is the level at which most such decisions are taken
and since it is usually at this level that planning services are
controlled. Getting planning and police services to work
together on crime and violence issues is still relatively new. 37
It needs to be remembered that although this is a new
field for planners, it is also very much a ‘non-traditional’
activity for the police. Available evidence suggests that only a
limited number of police work in this kind of crime prevention
activity compared with more traditional police
operations. 38 It is also the case that local authorities will see
issues of crime and violence as affecting two of their primary
concerns: the quality of life of their citizens and the ability of
their city to develop its economy. If these two factors are
seen as being adversely affected by issues of crime and
violence, then there is increased likelihood that the process
of urban governance will seek to address this problem area
as a major priority. So, while local authorities are, to a large
extent, involved in dealing with crime and violence by virtue
of their mainstream activities, there clearly are circumstances
that can cause this issue to rise to, or near, the top of
the agenda of urban priorities.
It can also be argued persuasively that the need to
ensure that levels of crime and violence are low and that fear
of crime does not intrude in any significant way into the life
decisions that citizens make is an integral element in good
urban governance:
Urban governance is inextricably linked to the
welfare of the citizenry. Good urban governance
must enable women and men to access the
benefits of urban citizenship. Good urban governance,
based on the principle of urban
citizenship, affirms that no man, woman or
child can be denied access to the necessities of
urban life, including adequate shelter, security
of tenure, safe water, sanitation, a clean
environment, health, education and nutrition,
employment and public safety, and mobility.
Through good urban governance, citizens are
provided with the platform which will allow
them to use their talents to the full to improve
their social and economic conditions. 39
Public safety is one of the necessities of urban life to which
all citizens have the right of access. But it is clear that this
desirable goal is not attained in many cities in the world. It is
also clear that local authorities cannot rely simply on exercising
their mainstream functions efficiently and effectively in
order to change this situation. So, what is needed over and
Getting planning
and police services
to work together on
crime and violence
issues is still
relatively new
Public safety is one
of the necessities of
urban life to which
all citizens have the
right of access