Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

52
Urban crime and violence
Contact crimes
jeopardize the
physical and
psychological wellbeing
of victims,
with potentially
devastating results
Of all property
crimes, burglary is
probably the most
invasive offence,
often
carrying with it
long-term
psychological
impacts on victims,
stigma for
neighbourhoods
and… implications
for planning
offences generally includes homicides, assaults (including
those suffered as a result of domestic violence), robbery
(including armed robbery), rape and, in some jurisdictions,
kidnapping. It may also include some relatively minor
offences, such as pick-pocketing. Though usually less
frequent than property crimes, personal crimes such as
homicides and robberies imperil individuals and communities,
with significant social and economic impacts to families,
cities and states. They often have significant long-term
impacts on the way in which urban areas are perceived and
used by residents and outsiders, and how they are regenerated
(or ignored) by public agencies. Contact crimes
jeopardize the physical and psychological well-being of
victims, with potentially devastating results. This chapter
focuses on homicides and robberies as some of the most well
documented of these crimes in more detail below.
Property crimes
Property offences constitute the second category of crime
and are considered less serious than personal crimes.
Nonetheless, they significantly affect individual victims and
negatively influence the overall quality of urban life. Across
all crime categories, larceny and thefts are generally the
most frequent individual offences, with rates that usually far
exceed either violent crimes or those of other types of
property crime. The vast majority of all crimes are, indeed,
minor in most places. There are, of course, exceptions to
this, such as in Accra, Ghana, where assaults were the
highest individual category of offences reported between
1980 and 1996. 19 There are a considerable number of
‘lesser’ property crimes, including vandalism and ‘quality of
life’ crimes, such as graffiti and damage to property.
The most serious property crimes generally include
burglary, larceny and theft (the latter two are often, but not
always, synonymous with each other depending upon jurisdiction),
arson and other property-related offences that are
specific to localities. Of all property crimes, burglary is
probably the most invasive offence, often carrying with it
long-term psychological impacts on victims, stigma for neighbourhoods
and districts, and implications for planning and
design. Burglary is considered in more detail below.
Crimes against public order
A third broad category includes moral infractions and crimes
against public order and welfare and may include anti-social
behaviour, as well as some types of sexual offences and
infractions, such as corruption, trafficking of human beings,
firearms and drugs. As an example of the wide range of
offences in this category, Ghana includes currency offences,
treason, sedition, mutiny, rioting, publication of false
rumour, evasion of military service, prostitution and food
safety violations, among others. 20 Other much less serious
offences and disorder in this category of crime can include
public intoxication and criminal damage. Fraud, cyber-crime
(including identity theft), other so-called ‘white collar’
crimes and environmental offences may be variably included
in the crimes against public order category or even fall
within the civil law domain as distinct from criminal
offences, depending upon jurisdiction, seriousness or other
factors related to the specific circumstance. Trafficking
offences are often the province of organized and relatively
sophisticated groups at global, national and urban levels. The
growth of international criminal enterprises, such as trafficking,
is associated with broader global trends, facilitated by
weak or failing formal institutions and abetted by complicit
or fragile civil societies.
Data issues
There are several important caveats to interpreting the data
that follows. These include:
• Methods of recording and counting crime vary from
country to country, and there are no accepted universal
standards on producing and presenting crime statistics.
• Crime reporting is related to the prevalence of law
enforcement and to peoples’ willingness to come
forward, both of which vary by country – in virtually all
jurisdictions many crimes are not reported to authorities.
• Crime victimization data obtained through surveys
tends to be higher quality than police reports, even
though they, too, rely on people’s memories and willingness
to cooperate.
• Definitions of what constitutes a crime differ widely and
may not be comparable by virtue of cultural, social and
legal system differences.
• Crime data quality diverges widely and is related to
resource availability – hence, poor nations are less likely
than wealthy ones to have complete and accurate crime
data.
Comparisons of crime data between and among regions,
countries and cities should therefore be seen in light of
these limitations. Moreover, it is important to note that
trends can be best understood in terms of a long-term
perspective as a means to understanding regional and
national differences.
Although there are differences among countries, four
general approaches are commonly used to count crime.
These include: crimes that are reported or known to the
police; information gathered on the arrest of persons; data
based on convictions for crimes; and crime rates obtained
from victim surveys audits. Offender interviews and hospital
admission records are also employed to collect crime data,
although their use is not as widespread as police reports,
arrest and conviction rates and victim survey data. While
each of these measures offers insights into crime conditions
and trends, all crime data must be carefully balanced against
the numerous data collection problems noted above.
Recognizing these issues, attention is paid to certain
conventional crimes that research and victim surveys suggest
as having significant impact on urban dwellers, with
compounding effects on the larger communities of which
they are a part. These include contact crimes such as
homicides (an indicator of violent crime, generally) and