Safe Cities and Communities - Theme Cities: Solutions for Urban Problems - page 436

Fig. 12.4 Basic elements of safe city strategies

12.4.1 Recognition and Willingness

First, there must be an explicit recognition by urban citizens, agencies and govern-
ments in a city, or areas within a city, that there are problems in the existing safety
system that are not being resolved. In addition there must be a willingness of the
leaders and the population at large to do something about the situation. Figure 12.2
shows that this involves moving beyond the generality of concern about crime in
general and providing specific empirical evidence about its causes and incidence.
It means identifying the various types of crime, the numbers and rates of change,
as well as the varied temporal and spatial incidence in crime, for crime varies by
day, week and seasons. The decision to create pressure for change does not simply
depend upon the assumption that crime causes problems and distress for individu-
als. It also comes from the understanding the effects of crime, namely that high
crime rates reduces the quality of life, or liveability of cities, by increasing fear