Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Urban crime and violence: Conditions and trends
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Category of violence Types of violence by perpetrators and/or victims Manifestations
Political • State and non-state violence • Guerrilla conflict
• Paramilitary conflict
• Political assassinations
• Armed conflict between political parties
Institutional • Violence of state and other ‘informal’ institutions, • Extra judicial killings by the police
including the private sector • Physical or psychological abuse by health and education workers
• State or community vigilante-directed social cleansing of gangs and street
children
• Lynching of suspected criminals by community members
Economic • Organized crime • Intimidation and violence as a means of resolving economic disputes
• Business interests • Street theft robbery and crime
• Delinquents • Kidnapping
• Robbers • Armed robbery
• Drug trafficking
• Car theft and other contraband activities
• Small arms dealing
• Assaults including killing and rape in the course of economic crimes
• Trafficking in prostitutes
• Conflict over scarce resources
Economic/social • Gangs • Territory- or identity-based turf violence
• Street children • Petty theft
• Ethnic violence • Communal riots
Social • Intimate partner violence inside the home • Physical or psychological male–female abuse
• Sexual violence (including rape) in a public area • Physical and sexual abuse particularly evident in the case of stepfathers, but
• Child abuse: boys and girls also uncles
• Intergenerational conflict between parent and child • Physical and psychological abuse
• Gratuitous/routine daily violence • Incivility in areas such as traffic, road rage, bar fights and street
confrontations
• Arguments that get out of control
Table 3.1
Roadmap of categories,
types and
manifestations of
violence in urban areas
Source: Moser, 2004, p5
tions and cultures. Within this context, crime prevention
approaches and classification schemes have focused on
offenders, on punishment, on policing, on corrections, on
victims, and on sociological, cultural and economic contexts
of the criminal event. These emphases have produced an
extensive literature 12 of prevention strategies relative to
addressing offenders’ moral, psychological, economic and
social conditions, devising police tactics, assessing the
efficacy of prisons and correctional systems, remedying
urban slums and addressing physical and management issues
relative to urban planning and design.
Violence has multiple definitions and is subject to
numerous classification schemes. The World Health
Organization (WHO) defines violence as ‘The intentional use
of physical force, threatened or actual, against oneself,
another person, or against a group or community that either
results in or has a high likelihood of … injury, death, psychological
harm, mal-development or deprivation.’ The WHO
further categorizes violence relative to whether it is selfdirected,
interpersonal or collective. 13 It is also possible to
identify broad categories of violence, types of violence by
perpetrators or victims, and manifestations. 14 This typology
is illustrated in Table 3.1.
The typology is quite inclusive and focuses attention
beyond types of violence receiving media attention to more
specific forms, including those specifically directed at
women and children, as well as those originating from the
state. In addition to the above, the notion of structural
violence has been identified. 15 This relates to non-physical
acts or indirect forms of violence that have emerged from
historical experiences and are woven into social, economic
and political systems. In this context, violence is ‘built into
the structure of society … and shows up as unequal power
and consequentially as unequal life chances’. 16 Such implicit
forms of violence include exploitation, exclusion, injustice
inequality and discrimination.
The linkage of crime and violence
Crime and violence are related issues, although many crimes
may not entail violence (such as theft and drug-related
offences) and some acts of violence may not be crimes (such
as those committed pursuant to law or those embedded in
cultural norms. However, there are significant overlaps
between crime and violence, such as in the cases of
murders, armed robberies and assaults, including sexual
assault. Violence is one feature that distinguishes types of
crime within the broad categories of crimes described below.
Certain types of violence may not be considered as crime in
some jurisdictions or may be illegal but tolerated within the
context of overriding religious or cultural frameworks. In
these cases, violence is so embedded in norms that it is part
of the accepted structure of life.
Although the International Crime Victimization
Survey (ICVS) uses 11 types of conventional crime on which
overall victimization rates are based, 17 crimes may also be
grouped into three broad descriptive categories that affect
people throughout the world: personal or contact (violent)
crimes; property offences; and crimes against public order
and welfare.
Contact crimes
The first category of crimes includes violent acts against
persons, which are considered to be the most serious
offences. Sometimes called personal crimes, 18 this group of
There are significant
overlaps between
crime and violence,
such as in the cases
of murders, armed
robberies and
assaults, including
sexual assault