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10CHAPTERREDUCING URBAN CRIMEAND VIOLENCEThe primary purpose of this chapter is to explore some ofthe most helpful ways forward for urban areas in seeking totackle issues of crime and violence, based on the discussionin Chapter 4 of the policies being applied to this end. In thisregard, the chapter is divided into five sections. The firstexplores the potential of the six groupings of policyresponses to crime and violence identified in Chapter 4. Thesecond section examines the emerging policy trends thatwere also identified in Chapter 4 in terms of their futureutility. The third section looks at some of the key issues forimplementing policy that have been identified since it isclear that one of the key challenges in this field is the needto find effective ways of putting them into practice. Thefourth section pulls together some of the key issues thatarise from these discussions for the future of the UN-HabitatSafer Cities Programme. The final section identifies 13 broadpropositions that reflect the conclusions of this chapter.SCOPE FOR THECONTINUINGDEVELOPMENT OF KEYPOLICY RESPONSESChapter 4 identified six groups of policy responses to crimeand violence in urban areas:1 enhancing urban safety and security through effectiveurban planning, design and governance;2 community-based approaches to enhancing urban safetyand security;3 strengthening formal criminal justice and policing;4 reducing risk factors;5 non-violent resolution of conflicts; and6 strengthening social capital.Each of these is discussed in more detail below in terms ofits potential to contribute effectively to addressing crime andviolence in urban areas.Enhancing urban safety and security througheffective urban planning, design andgovernanceChapters 3 and 4 have shown that poor planning, design andmanagement of cities are among the factors associated withcrime and violence. The idea that where crimes takes place issomething that should be of interest to the processes ofplanning and urban design is a relatively new idea in terms ofits mainstream acceptance. But the reason why this mattersis that the work of these disciplines through their manipulationof the physical environment has the potential either toreduce the opportunity for crime to be committed or tocreate such opportunities. The accumulated experiencefrom several parts of the world suggests that attempts tomanipulate the physical environment in order to reduce theopportunity for crime as part of design processes are potentiallyvery useful elements in the fight against crime andviolence. 1■ Building crime prevention into new andexisting environmentsThere are usually two primary elements to processes of thisnature: building crime prevention considerations into thedesign processes that shape new development, and revisitingproblematic existing built environments where there is thepossibility that reshaping these might reduce the crimeproblems that they are experiencing. This latter element isoften given less attention than the former; but in mostsocieties the amount of new development under considerationis on a much smaller scale than the extent ofdevelopment that already exists. As a result, it is importantthat attention should not be focused exclusively on newdevelopment. Nonetheless, it is essential to get new developmentright from a crime prevention perspective for threereasons. First, the problems of crime are experienced by theoccupants of developments over protracted periods of time,and this can be a major factor in public satisfaction (or otherwise)with these developments. Second, developments thatencourage high levels of criminal activity are also likely toput pressure on policing services, which, of course, is apublic cost. Third, retrofitting is inevitably a somewhatconstrained process; therefore, revisiting developments toExperience fromseveral parts of theworld suggests thatattempts to manipulatethe physicalenvironment inorder to reduce theopportunity forcrime …are potentiallyvery usefulelements in the fightagainst crime andviolence