Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

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Towards safer and more secure cities
The extent to which
non-traditional
approaches to crime
and violence have
now become well
established is
illustrated by the
main areas of activity
promoted via
UNHabitat’s Safer
Cities approach
tackle the extent to which prisons in some countries 28 have
become finishing schools for crime, rather than places where
criminals can be rehabilitated. Both of these involve issues
that cannot be resolved at the city level, although in both
instances it is at the level of the individual city where many
of their adverse consequences are felt.
Thus, the approach here needs to be one of continuing
to find policies and practices that are appropriate to
tackle both the symptoms and the causes of crime and
violence in cities. Because many of these are socio-economic
in nature, and are about much more than simply the criminal
intentions of some human beings, it is likely that the range of
solutions that continue to be seen to be appropriate will be
broadly based and probably will in future be more comprehensive
than has been seen to date. But within these
approaches, the traditional functions of the police and the
criminal justice system are of vital importance, and it is
essential that they are fully involved in the agreed actions,
fully aware of their own roles within them and of how these
relate to other roles, and constantly reviewed to ensure that
they remain ‘fit for purpose’.
Developing policies and practices in ‘nontraditional’
areas
Box 10.4 The place of non-traditional approaches to crime
and violence in UN-Habitat Safer Cities programmes
UN-Habitat Safer Cities Programme activities target three main types of prevention:
• situational prevention – crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED);
• institutional prevention – support to new and alternative forms of justice and policing;
• social prevention – actions aimed particularly at groups at risk.
In addition, the following are the other significant areas of activity:
• promoting local authority leadership and responsibility for urban safety as part of good
urban governance;
• supporting crime prevention partnerships and initiatives implemented in collaboration
with local authorities, the criminal justice system, the private sector and civil society in
order to address urban insecurity issues successfully and in sustainable ways;
• building city networks to share knowledge, expertise and good practices that can be replicated
in other cities and regions;
• conducting training and capacity-building for local authorities and other stakeholders;
• disseminating lessons learned in collaboration with partners in the North and South.
Source: UN-Habitat, undated, p3
Of the six broad groups of policy responses to crime and
violence discussed in the section on ‘Scope for the continuing
development of key policy responses’, one
(strengthening formal criminal justice and policing) represents
the ‘traditional’ approach 29 and the other five are the
main non-traditional policy responses. Since this section has
already discussed what was involved in the development of
these policy responses, the focus of this discussion is on the
process of broadening out policy development in nontraditional
areas, rather than on the content of these policy
packages. Four of these are commonly found in contemporary
strategies to tackle crime and violence; but a fifth (the
non-violent resolution of conflicts) seems to be much less
commonly utilized.
The nine case studies prepared in support of the part
of this <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Report</strong> that focuses on crime and violence
reflect this balance, with the strategies evident in
Bradford, 30 Durban, 31 Kingston, 32 Nairobi 33 and Toronto, 34
and, to a lesser extent, New York 35 and Rio de Janeiro, 36
exemplifying this broadly based approach, and the work on
developing the Safer Cities Programme for Port Moresby 37
also going in this direction. The only one of these that
appears to contain an explicit programme designed around
the theme of non-violent approaches to conflict resolution is
the strategy adopted for Kingston (Jamaica). Available
evidence suggests that this strategy, as a whole, has
contributed to the recent reductions of crime and violence
in Jamaica, 38 although it is often difficult to be clear about
what elements of success can be attributed to individual
initiatives when several different initiatives are being implemented
more or less simultaneously.
The Kingston case is interesting because apart from
its innovative elements, such as the work on non-violent
approaches, it also includes significant measures to improve
police performance. In addition, it contains an example of
measures to target gang operations via Operation Kingfish,
which has been successful in recovering firearms, ammunition
and other equipment from gangs operating in the illicit
drugs trade, 39 and which can also be seen as a development
of the ‘traditional’ role of the police and criminal justice
systems. The lesson that this experience reinforces is the
point that the process of exploring ‘non-traditional’
approaches to crime and violence is not an alternative to
seeking improvements in traditional areas, but rather should
be seen as a complement to it.
The extent to which non-traditional approaches to
crime and violence have now become well established is
illustrated by the main areas of activity promoted via UN-
Habitat’s Safer Cities approach, which are summarized in
Box 10.4.
What Box 10.4 shows is a mix of traditional and nontraditional
approaches, with a strong emphasis on process
issues, an emphasis on the leadership role of local authorities
working in collaboration with a wide range of partners,
and recognition of the need to build capacities in order to
make people and processes more effective. This does not
neglect traditional approaches, including the need to support
new and alternative forms of justice and policing; but it
recognizes that reliance on these alone would offer a very
limited approach to what are seen as major and deep-seated
problems both for many urban communities and the citizens
who inhabit them and for the process of urban governance.
The move away from ad hoc initiatives and
towards more programmatic approaches
As has been previously discussed, urban crime is rarely a
one-dimensional phenomenon. It is therefore unlikely that it
will be challenged effectively by single ad hoc initiatives.
This does not imply that carefully chosen and well-targeted
initiatives have nothing to contribute. But the recognition of