Rural Crime and Community Safety

Crime is often perceived as an urban issue rather than a problem that occurs in rural areas, but how far is this view tenable? This book explores the relationship between crime and community in rural areas and addresses the notion of safety as part of the community dynamics in such areas. Rural Crime and Community Safety makes a significant contribution to crime science and integrates a range of theories to understand patterns of crime and perceived safety in rural contexts. Based on a wealth of original research, Ceccato combines spatial methods with qualitative analysis to examine, in detail, farm and wildlife crime, youth related crimes and gendered violence in rural settings. Making the most of the expanding field of Criminology and of the growing professional inquiry into crime and crime prevention in rural areas; rural development; and the social sustainability of rural areas, this book builds a bridge by connecting Criminology and Human Geography. This book will be suitable for academics, students and practitioners in the fields of criminology, community safety, rural studies, rural development and gender studies

Rural Crime and Community Safety

Crime is often perceived as an urban issue rather than a problem that occurs in rural areas, but how far is this view tenable? This book explores the relationship between crime and community in rural areas and addresses the notion of safety as part of the community dynamics in such areas. Rural Crime and Community Safety makes a significant contribution to crime science and integrates a range of theories to understand patterns of crime and perceived safety in rural contexts. Based on a wealth of original research, Ceccato combines spatial methods with qualitative analysis to examine, in detail, farm and wildlife crime, youth related crimes and gendered violence in rural settings. Making the most of the expanding field of Criminology and of the growing professional inquiry into crime and crime prevention in rural areas; rural development; and the social sustainability of rural areas, this book builds a bridge by connecting Criminology and Human Geography. This book will be suitable for academics, students and practitioners in the fields of criminology, community safety, rural studies, rural development and gender studies

The ecology of outdoor rape: The case of Stockholm, Sweden

The objective of this article is to report the results of an ecological study into the geography of rape in Stockholm, Sweden, using small area data. In order to test the importance of factors indicating opportunity, accessibility and anonymity to the understanding of the geography of rape, a two-stage modelling approach is implemented. First, the overall risk factors associated with the occurrence of rape are identified using a standard Poisson regression, then a local analysis using profile regression is performed. Findings from the whole-map analysis show that accessibility, opportunity and anonymity are all, to different degrees, important in explaining the overall geography of rape - examples of these risk factors are the presence of subway stations or whether a basområde is close to the city centre. The local analysis reveals two groupings of high risk of rape areas associated with a variety of risk factors: city centre areas with a concentration of alcohol outlets, high residential population turnover and high counts of robbery; and poor suburban areas with schools and large female residential populations where subway stations are located and where people express a high fear of crime. The article concludes by reflecting upon the importance of these results for future research as well as indicating the implications of these results for policy

Public Space and the Situational Conditions of Crime and Fear

This special issue explores the situational conditions of crime and perceived safety in public spaces. In this foreword, we first examine the concept of public space and then discuss how public spaces relate to crime and fear of crime. In the final session we introduce the different articles that compose the Special Issue, with contributions from Australia, Colombia, India, Sweden and the United States.QC 20161130</p

Is CPTED Useful to Guide the Inventory of Safety in Parks? : A Study Case in Stockholm, Sweden

Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) has long been suggested as a guideline for improving safety in neighborhoods. Yet, little is known about the application of CPTED to urban parks. The aim of this study is to evaluate the adequacy of CPTED principles in guiding the inventory of safety conditions of an urban park. The study begins with a review of the development of CPTED ideas and then focuses on the inspection of a park with a relatively high level of crime in the city of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Site observations, parks inspection, crime mapping of police-recorded data, and interviews with selected users and municipal stakeholders underpin the methodology used in this study. Findings indicate that design and management of the park affect the park’s safety conditions—attributes that are easily identifiable when using CPTED as guidance. The article concludes with several general lessons from using CPTED principles to inventory safety in parks.QC 20161129</p

Sexual Harassment in Transit Environments among College Students in the #MeToo Era : Reporting Evidence from Six Continents

Evaluating patterns of sexual violence against young people across the world in the era of the #MeToo movement presents great opportunities for research and practice but also challenges. The aim of this article is to critically assess an internet-based methodology employed in a comparative study conducted with university students in 18 different cities, in six continents. While our main purpose is to examine the methodological aspects of this study, the article also presents briefly its major findings and discusses compiled recommendations to curb sexual violence in some of the most important transit systems in the world. Findings show that sexual violence in transit environments is a common occurrence globally, is highly underreported, and ranges considerably from one city to the other, and between gender groups. Lessons from this study suggest that it is crucial to use identical research tools and choose partners who can ensure that research tasks are undertaken on time, ethically, and with good care for the quality of data and the research process. To curb sexual violence on transit, actions tailored to local contexts are necessary, but as underreporting of harassment is prevalent in all contexts, one global need is initiatives that facilitate incident reporting.QC 20210322</p