Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
important to get private landlords to maintain and renovate their properties. Unfor-
tunately it has proved very time-consuming to get owners of run-down properties
to improve their buildings. Fines, licensing systems for delinquent rental owners
that deny them rights of renting new properties, have all been proposed and used in
various countries, although legal constraints over the civil rights of property own-
ers have often held up the process. A real problem facing such policies in most
democratic countries is that municipalities frequently lack the legal ability to imple-
ment such approaches without getting the support of national or state authorities to
change existing property laws. In many inner city areas the process of gentrification
has often led to the physical upgrading of inner-city areas, and because of social co-
operation between the new residents there is a greater willingness to co-operate to
improve an area. The downside, of course, is that the poorer people get displaced,
so they may be worse-off unless adequate social housing is available.
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Crime and Green Space
Chapter 4 (Green Cities) has already described how the greening of areas has many
positive advantages in improving the quality of life and has shown the relationship
between green areas and crime reduction (Kuo and Sullivan
2001
; Branas et al.
2011
). Although it has often been assumed that the presence of trees in an area
reduced local visibility and helped criminals to conceal themselves, several recent
studies have shown that the situation is much more nuanced. It is the low bush
areas that should be removed as they can conceal lurkers, whereas areas of large
trees, with maintained canopies and with their lower branches removed, improve
visibility. As a result they have been shown to be correlated with low crime rates
(Donovan and Prestemon
2010
).
12.6.3
Crime and Behavioural Policy Solutions
The main emphasis of this third main category of policies is to try and directly reduce
criminal activity, or even potential criminal activity, by changing the behaviours of
people who have been, or could be engaged in such pursuits. Of course, not all will
be receptive to changing their behaviour; some have a life-style of crime that is very
difficult to modify, let alone eradicate. But most criminologists believe that the ma-
jority of those who are likely to commit crime in the future, would not carry out such
activities if the circumstances of their upbringing and opportunities had been differ-
ent, either from flaws in their developmental history, or from the social ecology of
their environment, each of which contributes to their
predisposition to crime
(Hagen
1985
)
.
Crimes against persons and property are strongly associated with particular
characteristics of a population, namely: poverty, unemployment, limited education,
gender (with far more crime from male teenagers and young adults), single par-
ent families, transients, as well as those with mental disabilities, addictions, such as
drugs and alcohol, and the un-acculturated immigrants. This is not to imply that all
