Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

3
CHAPTER
URBAN CRIME AND VIOLENCE:
CONDITIONS AND TRENDS
This chapter documents global conditions and trends with
respect to urban crime and violence. It forms the basis for
the policy responses that are presented in Chapter 4 and
recommendations as to ways forward that are advanced in
Chapter 10. In examining crime and violence, the analytical
framework presented in Chapter 2 is used by focusing on
vulnerability, risk factors and impacts at the global, national,
local urban, community, household and individual levels. It
must be emphasized from the outset that the topic areas
covered in this and the other chapters on crime and violence
involve vast and rapidly evolving literatures. This is one
measure of the importance of the subjects to individuals,
states and the global community. This also means that
comprehensive review of the field is not feasible in a few
chapters, nor is this the intent. Rather, the aim is to provide
an assessment of conditions and trends, as well as policies
and strategies, which are fundamental to the creation of
safer and more secure cities relative to the prevention,
reduction and mitigation of crime and violence. The chapter
is divided into five sections.
The first section describes the analytical framework
and orientation of the chapter. It also identifies key concepts
and terms, and makes observations about the quality and
availability of crime data. The section on ‘The incidence and
variability of crime and violence’ discusses the incidence of
crime at the global, regional, national and local levels. The
factors that trigger crime and violence are discussed in
‘Factors underlying crime and violence’. The impacts of
crime and violence are then addressed in a fourth section.
This is followed by the final section, which provides brief
concluding remarks.
ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORKS
FOR THE CHAPTER
Crime and violence as predictable
phenomena
Like natural disasters, crime and violence are predictable
phenomena variably affecting cities of all sizes across the
globe. Often seen as discrete events, crime and violence are
the result of processes and choices that have long-term
underlying roots, including those related to global economic
changes, national conditions and to the level and pace of
urban development. Crime and violence are also associated
with more immediate risk factors, such as the ready availability
of drugs and guns.
‘Common’ or conventional crimes and violence are
socio-pathologies that are traditionally and often automatically
associated with cities. But it should be clear that most
places in most cities are safe and that most types of common
street crime tend to reoccur at certain locations – hotspots –
that are venues known to citizens and to public officials.
They are therefore reasonably predictable events; indeed,
some research suggests that, relative to crime prevention,
the question that could best be asked first is not who
committed the crime but where it happened. 1
Cultures of fear and the media
While the issues are complex, it is clear that fear of crime,
violence and terrorism are global concerns, made increasingly
salient by all forms of media, including that provided by
the internet and sensationalized press reports. For instance,
the media in Latin America plays a key role in constructing
images of fear, insecurity and violence due to the phenomenal
and, at times, sensational coverage given to youth
violence and youth gangs. 2 Similarly, the British Crime
Survey found that readers of national ‘tabloids’ were twice
as likely to be worried about violent crime, burglary and car
crime as people who read ‘broadsheets’, although it is not
clear whether such readers were more predisposed to worry
about crime in the first place. 3
The flood of information (and misinformation)
reaches residents of megacities at an astonishing rate,
especially as the internet, email and cell phones knit
together more of the world. The rapid diffusion of information
is now the lifeblood of industrialized and democratized
market economies where both conflict and enterprise are
generally constrained by law. But the media also affects that
half of the world’s population that is described by some as
falling within the unregulated ‘shadow economy’, in which
violence rather than the state’s rule of law is the ultimate
‘arbiter’ of disputes. As discussed below, burgeoning criminal
networks – called by some the ‘sinister underbelly of
Conventional crimes
and violence are
socio-pathologies
that are traditionally
and often
automatically
associated with
cities
Fear of crime,
violence and
terrorism are global
concerns, made
increasingly salient
by all forms of
media