Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Introduction
47
processes is low and cultures of fear are high, citizens may
resort to vigilante or rough justice.
No current discussion of urban safety and security
would be complete without mention of terrorism. Recent
attacks in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Bali, New York, Madrid,
London, Colombo and Mumbai, as well as the daily attacks
in Baghdad, have all had specific and more general impacts
on urban centres, including a significant shift in public
perceptions of the safety and security of cities. However,
this part of the report does not address the origins, motives
or instruments of terrorism – rather, it focuses on the
impacts of terrorism-related violence on cities, as well as on
city-level responses designed to mitigate these impacts.
Indeed, it is apparent that responses to terrorism in cities
such as New York and London have influenced the debates
about and responses to urban insecurity in other cities. A
few cases of urban terrorist attacks and responses of the
targeted cities are described in this report in order to illustrate
the impacts of this extreme type of urban violence on
cities, as well as the vulnerability, resilience and preparedness
of these cities.
Some of the issues relating to the trends, factors and
impacts of crime and violence discussed in this part of the
report are illustrated by the case of Nairobi (Kenya),
described in Box II.1.
Finally, several policy initiatives have emerged in
response to the trends, factors and impacts of crime and
violence sketched in the preceding paragraphs, as shown in
this part of the report. Since a high proportion of crime takes
place in specific locations, the most significant of the levels
of response is the local level. But much crime can also be
organized across much broader spatial scales, and so
responses at levels that are broader than the local are important
if crimes of this nature are to be addressed effectively.
Evidence suggests that the most successful policy responses
to prevent and reduce the incidence and impacts of crime
and violence are those that take cognisance of the local
context, rather than those based on the experience of other
places.
The policy initiatives at the local level to address
issues of urban crime and violence have been grouped into
six broad categories:
• enhancing urban safety and security through effective
urban planning, design and governance;
• community-based approaches to enhancing urban safety
and security;
• strengthening formal criminal justice systems and
policing;
• reducing risk factors;
• non-violent resolution of conflicts; and
• strengthening social capital.
Many of these policy responses have been attempted in
combination with others, and it is becoming increasingly
common to find that several of these are constituent
elements of formal programmes. In addition, there are many
examples of targeted single initiatives that seek to address
particular types of crimes.
Enhancing urban safety and security through effective
urban planning, design and governance starts from the
proposition that there is a relationship between the characteristics
of the built environment and the opportunity to
commit crime. It therefore seeks to manipulate the built
environment in ways that are intended to reduce or even to
eliminate the opportunity to commit crimes. Key to this
notion is the role of the planning system since it is through
the planning system that most development is mediated.
Available evidence from countries that have attempted this is
that it can undoubtedly add value to the range of methods
available to tackle crime.
Community-based initiatives cover a broad spectrum
of approaches, including information-gathering, processes
for determining policies and projects, implementation, and
creating opportunities for communities to take initiatives
themselves. The essence of these approaches is that initiatives
to tackle crime and violence should be ‘done with’ local
communities rather than ‘done to’ them. Central to this
approach is the need to recognize that the people who are
the intended beneficiaries of projects must contribute fully
to shaping them, implementing them and, often, taking
ownership of them.
In this context, a widespread response examined in
this part of the report is the strengthening of social capital.
This entails not only improving the ability of groups and
communities to respond positively to problems of crime and
violence, but is also about the creation of assets that assist in
enhancing the resilience of communities. Available evidence
suggests that stronger communities are better able to fight
crime and violence than are weaker communities, and so
initiatives which build the capacity of communities to
respond and which provide community assets that reinforce
this process are of huge value.
Strengthening formal criminal justice systems and
policing have traditionally been the main tools for responding
to crime and violence. However, problems have been
experienced in this context in some parts of the world.
These include corruption in such systems, inflexibility of
response to changing criminal circumstances, limited
resources and skills in relation to the needs of the job, and
ineffective practices. The problem of corruption in criminal
justice systems and in the police is a particularly corrosive
one in terms of public confidence since the public at large
relies on these agencies to do their traditional jobs of apprehending
and sentencing criminals.
To date, policy responses focusing on reducing risk
factors seem to have concentrated on tackling violence
against women and trying to prevent young people from
drifting into a life of crime. An important part of work to
tackle problems of violence against women is the need to
fully engage families, households and local communities
since in some instances violence against women seems to be
deeply entrenched in local cultures. Strategies to prevent
young people from drifting into a life of crime typically
employ a wide range of initiatives, including employment
creation. The non-violent resolution of conflicts, which is
more of a philosophical idea than a specific policy to address
crime and violence, is yet another response. As a philosophy,