Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Urban crime and violence: Conditions and trends
65
countryside for the city and joins one of the street gangs
engaged in common crime without political objectives.’ 110
Youth homicides
Closely related to youth gangs is the issue of youth
homicides. According to WHO data, about 199,000 youth
homicides took place globally in 2000, implying an average
of 565 young people aged between 10 and 29 dying daily
due to various types of violence. 111 Regional variations show
that youth homicide rates were lowest in Western Europe
and in the high-income countries of the Pacific. The highest
rates are found in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa,
as shown in Figure 3.18. This coincides with regions where
there are large bulges in the youthful population. Countries
with very low rates include Japan (with 0.4 per 100,000
individuals); France (0.6 per 100,000); Germany (0.8 per
100,000); and the UK (with 0.09 per 100,000). The
countries having high rates of youth homicide include
Colombia (with 84.4 per 100,000 individuals); El Salvador
(50.2 per 100,000); Puerto Rico (41.8 per 100,000); and
Brazil (with 32.5 per 100,000). Other countries with high
rates are the US (11 per 100,000); Russia (18 per 100,000);
and Albania (with 28.2 per 100,000). The high rate in the
US reflects, in part, gun policies and inequality, while that of
Russia can be linked to its economic transition.
Urban terrorism
Urban terrorism is one type of violence that has serious
consequences for cities in both developed and developing
countries. Acts of terrorism fall within the ambit of ‘spectacular
violence’, which derives from the deliberate attempt to
unsettle and disrupt urban populations, in contrast to ‘everyday
violence’. 112 In this report, terrorism is seen as violent
acts that are deliberately targeted at civilians and urban infrastructure.
The report does not examine the perpetrators of
acts of terror, their origins or their motives – all of which lie
outside the scope of this report. This approach is adopted
due to the contentious and complex nature of what constitutes
terrorism, since terrorism itself could have different
meanings depending on the perspective from which it is
viewed. While this approach might have certain shortcomings,
it clearly avoids the problematic issue of ‘when one
person’s “terrorist” becomes another’s “freedom fighter”’,
and escapes the essentialist categories associated with the
discourse on the current ‘war on terror’. 113
The terrorist attacks on New York of 11 September
2001 have brought to the fore in vivid terms the vulnerability
of cities to terrorism. Cities make attractive targets for
terrorist attacks due to several reasons. Cities are built-up
agglomerations with high densities, and, as such, the impact
of an explosion increases with density — thereby maximizing
the impact of an attack or destroying a large amount
within a short time. This is often referred to as the ‘target
effect’ 114 — implying that the large size and dense agglomeration
of cities make them ideal targets for terrorist attacks.
Furthermore, given the role of cities in terms of their administrative,
economic, social, cultural and political functions, as
well as the fact that the influence of cities transcends their
national boundaries, 115 attacks on cities provide a high
degree of visibility. Within cities themselves, infrastructure
and services such as mass transit and communication
systems, as well as commercial areas and shopping malls,
restaurants, sports stadia, hotels, theatres and other places
where large numbers of people gather, form the key targets
of terrorist attacks because of the likelihood of greater devastation.
For instance, the suburban train system in Mumbai,
India which carries more than 6 million commuters daily,
and one of the busiest in the world 116 has been the target of
a series of terrorist attacks over the last decade because of
the enormous consequences of such attacks.
Figure 3.18
Estimated homicide
rates among youths
aged 10 to 29 (2000)
Source: Krug et al, 2002, p26
Note: Rates were calculated by
WHO region and country
income level and then groups
according to magnitude.
Urban terrorism is
one type of violence
that has serious
consequences for
cities in both
developed and
developing countries
Within cities …
infrastructure …
such as mass transit
and communication
systems… and other
places where large
numbers of people
gather, form the key
targets of terrorist
attacks because of
the likelihood of
greater devastation