208 Geographica Helvetica Jg. 59 2004/Heft3

Urban Violence

David Herbert, Swansea

1 Introduction

Crimes of violence cover a ränge of acts committedby a perpetrator or perpetrators against victims. Theyalmost invariably have a traumatic impact upon thevictims and excite a great deal of interest from themedia. Homicide as the most unambiguous form ofviolent crime ranks at the very top of police prioritiesfor investigation and receives the heaviest sanctionsfrom the criminal justice System. Unsolved homicidesor murders remain a blight on the police record andfiles are rarely closed. In recent years, advances inforensic science, particularly in relation to DNA profil-ing, have allowed old cases to be re-opened and pros-ecutions brought about many years after the actualcrime was committed. Successful strategies to reduceviolent crime, such as those in New York City that arelinked with «zero tolerance», are widely used as exam¬ples of good practice and sound policy. Governmentsare highly sensitive to changing levels of crime trendsand those related to crimes of violence are the mostsensitive of all. The study of crime has always been hin-dered by a lack of confidence in the completeness and

accuracy of the criminal record. Many crimes go unre-corded or even unreported and there is a «dark area»of such crimes that is of the order of 80% (Herbert1982). Some categories of violent crimes are less vul¬nerable to these caveats and homicide is clearly oneof these. If someone is the victim of a homicide thenmostly there is the physical evidence of the body. Evenin the rare cases where that physical evidence is notpresent, individuals will be missed as they are part ofnetworks of family, friends and acquaintances that willeventually seek them out. There are several types ofeven violent crimes however where there will be a darkarea of unreported offences. Domestic violence is onesuch area, common assault may be another and sexualoffences, including rape, often do not lead to a victiminforming the police. As with all types of crime, we aredealing with a difficult and sometimes slippery phe¬nomenon both as a concept and as an evidence basedset of incidents. Finally, by way of introduction, thefocus on urban violence can be justified in both concep¬tual and empirical terms. Firstly, it will be argued thatcity environments can engender violent situations, andsecondly, the vast majority of acts of violence occur incities. Of course, there is rural violence and its impactscan be equally devastating but in terms of scale and theexistence of an urban effect, it is a problem associatedwith the environments of the city.

This paper will focus initially on current empiricaltrends and the evidence upon which the monitoringof urban violence is based. It will then review inbroad terms some of the attempts to understand thephenomenon of urban violence. In particular, thereis some discussion of the possible «geographies» ofurban violence and the ways in which concepts such as

place, space and territory can contribute to our overallunderstanding (see also Racine 2002).

2 Trends in urban violence in the United Kingdom

There is a widely held belief that crimes of violencehave increased in the past several decades. Given theproblematic nature of recorded crime data, it is diffi¬cult to make general Statements that confirm or denythis belief. Van Dijk (1999) used a United NationsCrime and Justice survey, based on sample surveys ofthe population at large, to show that the homicide ratein developed countries in 1994 was much higher thanit had been in 1974 but that the reverse tended to betrue of developing countries. This survey has the meritof not relying on police records though some of thedifficulties of making comparisons remain. To exam¬ine trends in more detail the experience of the UniledKingdom and urban violence offers one set of indica¬tors.

When Susan Smith (1989: 271) wrote that the streetsof Britain were getting meaner, she was perhaps beingmore prophetic than she had intended. Her commentwas largely based on a historical view of crime ratesthat showed an increase of recorded crime of 60% overthe period 1975 tol985. Smith also rested her case onthe evidence becoming available from national crimesurveys derived from the experience of victims irre-spective of whether this experience had been reportedto the police. These surveys could be expected to befuller accounts of crime than the police record. Crimeshad increased, the areas that suffered most were thosetypified anyway by deprivation and disadvantage towhich victimisation added an additional dimension.The streets were not only meaner but also less safe forphysical well-being and neither home nor workplaceseemed to offer a total Solution as safe havens. Thepolice record for homicide in the period from 1967 to2002 showed an increase from 354 per year to one of832 (Flood-Page & Taylor 2003). As rates per onemillion people, these represent an increase from 7.3 to16.0. The dark area for homicide was small and therewere less than 5% of incidents where no suspect wasbrought to court in the period 1991 to 2001. Over

Urban Violence David Herbert 209

this period, around three-quarters of those indictedwere found guilty in the courts and just over 20%were acquitted. In 2001, two-thirds of victims weremales compared with 50% in 1991 and one-third waskilled with a sharp instrument. People they wouldhave known killed 72% of female victims and partnersor former partners were responsible for 46% of theoffences (Mattinson 2001). Strangers were the mainsuspects in only 16% of female homicides but this roseto 37% for males. Emotional Stimuli such as temper,revenge and quarreis accounted for 40% of the rea¬

sons for homicides and this was the largest Single cat¬

egory. Other situations involved robberies or burgla-ries were apparently motiveless, or involved mentallydisturbed offenders. Statistically, the two groups atgreatest risk were children under the age of one yearand youths aged 16 to 29. The British Crime Survey(Flood-Page & Taylor 2003) calculated the risk ofbeing the victim of violent crime as 4% for the pop¬ulation at large but 16% for those aged 16 to 24.This survey classified four types of violent crime as

domestic (22%), mugging (15%). stranger (32%). andacquaintance (31%). Two-thirds of the incidents tookplace at night, the home was the most common loca¬tion (27%); 80% of offenders were male and over halfthe victims knew the assailant.

There are several trends related to urban violence thatare attracting a great deal of interest in the UnitedKingdom. One such trend is the evidence for urbandisorder or urban incivilities (Herbert 1993), which

may act as an indicator of the onset of more seriouscrime. The idea of urban disorder originated withthe «broken window» hypothesis (Wilson & Kelling1982) and has been developed in relation to a rängeof concepts such as neighbourhood change or Commu¬nity life cycles. Disorders can be a ränge of things suchas minor acts of vandalism and graffiti but their inci¬

dence, particularly where no remedies are sought, is

often the precursor of urban violence. In the BritishCrime Survey, one third of respondents said that dis¬

orders had a negative effect on their lives and lowincome residential areas were the foci of such disor¬ders. A second and perhaps related trend is that whichlinks drugs to violent crime. Ainsworth (2002) sug¬

gested that extraordinary levels of violence were hit-ting some of Britain's poorest communities as the useof crack cocaine spiralled. Commander Alan Brownof the UK's Operation Trident identified a growing cul¬

ture among young people to carry guns and seil drugsin ways that demand power and respect in their eyes(Ainsworth 2002). Experience in the United Statesis similar and the Uniform Crime Reports recorded87,900 arrests for heroin cocaine in 1982 but 529.200in 2000. The third and again related trend is that ofan increase in the possession and use of firearms.Gun murders remain small numerically in the United

Kingdom but have increased significantly. Factors arethought to be the increase in gang activities, the lucra-tive market in consumer items such as mobile phonesand the diversion of police to anti-terrorist duties.

3 Global trends

The United Nations supported Global Report onCrime and Justice (Newman 1999) allows us to viewsome of these trends in a comparative framework. TheGlobal Report is correctly concerned with the need forcaution in making international comparisons. Thereare differences in recording practices and also in crimedefinitions. The dark area of unreported or unrecordedcrime remains a problem and the official records maybe unrepresentative. White-collar crimes such as taxevasion and fraud are less easily detected than bur-glaries. Attitudes towards violence vary considerablyand acts deemed to be acceptable in some societies areregarded as criminal in others.There are also differentinterpretations within societies. The United Kingdomoffers a graphic example in the debate over domesticviolence. A Government survey suggested that one infour women had been victims of domestic violencebut critics of the report argued that 80% of the inci¬

dents should be regarded as trivial (Holbrook 2003).In many ways crime including violent crime is sociallydefined and is often more a comment of the values ofthose who administer the criminal justice System thanof society as a whole. The gulf between the rule-mak-ers and the rule-breakers is very wide.

The Global Report did not rely entirely on official sta¬

tistics and employed an International Crime and Jus¬

tice Survey to support its analyses (Van Dijk 1999).National crime surveys of this kind. that sample thevictimisation experience of residents over a specifiedperiod of time are now widely adopted in developedcountries. This type of survey has thrown a great dealof light on, for example. the reality of the «dark area»and the ways in which it varies from one type of crimeto another. In many ways the victimisation surveyshave provided some higher level of confidence in theofficial statistics as the relative positions if not theactual volumes of crime are broadly confirmed. Thereis also much greater understanding of the real prob¬lems of fear of crime and the effects that these haveon people's everyday lives. The International Crimeand Justice Survey investigated the different culturalvalues attached to acts of violence in different socie¬ties and found that over 17 acts of violence the corre¬lation coefficient was greater than 0.9, which showeda very high level of consensus on what kinds of vio¬lence constituted a crime. Of the top four offences, glo¬bally regarded as serious, three were defined as violentcrimes.

210 Geographica Helvetica Jg. 59 2004/Heft 3

Africa

Asia

Central andEastern Europe

Latin America

New World

Western Europe

T ~r10

~i r12 14 16

Percentage

J Violence (males) ] Violence (females)

Fig. 1: Percentage of men and women victimised by violent crime in urban areas of six global regions, 1989 to1996.

Geschlechterspezifische Anteile der Opfer von Gewaltverbrechen in urbanen Räumen von sechs globalen Regio¬nen, 1989 bis 1996.Taux d'hommes et de femmes victimes de crimes dans les aires urbaines de six regions du monde, de 1989 ä 1996.Source: Van Dijk 1999

Van Dijk (1999), who completed the main analysisof the International Crime and Justice Survey, arguedthat the experience of being criminally victimised hadbecome a statistically normal feature of urban life allover the world, though the type of victim experiencevaried. Africa and Latin America now have the high¬est rates of violent crime, though the United States,with twenty times the violent crime rate of Japan,was the most violent developed society (Figure 1).Within industrial societies, there was some indicationthat the gaps were narrowing; victimisation by vio¬lence remained stable in the United States between1988 and 1995 but increased in Europe. Van Dijk(1999) used the information to develop an investiga¬tion into the correlates of violent crimes. His subsetof «contact crimes» comprised robbery. sexual assaultand common assault and the key correlates of thesewere economic strain (feelings of deprivation), gunownership, lower education, and life style (defined as

going out in the evenings). Taken together and usedwith a Standard multivariate analysis. these four fac¬

tors accounted for 68% of the overall variance in ratesof contact crimes by country. The life style factor wascontentious in some ways as it was constructed as

part of an affluence measure. The particular definition,going out in the evenings. had more logic as it meantplacing people at risk outside the home.

Violence against women was most prevalent in LatinAmerica, Sub-Saharan Africa and a region defined asthe New World (United States, Canada. Australia andNew Zealand). From the 62 countries reporting hom¬icide rates for 1994, the ränge was from less than 5

to over 800 per million populations. Arab States andWestern Europe had the lowest rates with highestrates in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Offi¬cial records suggest that city dwellers have a higherrisk of being victims of violence (Figure 2). In gen¬eral, countries with high levels of gun ownership alsohave high levels of gun related crimes. Illicit drugrelated offences have increased most dramatically inthe past two decades. Organised crime groups such as

Urban Violence David Herbert 211

O

oooo- a New York

9000- San Jose

8000- SantiagoManagua

7000-

6000- La Paz

5000-^Kingston

4000- London-Tallinn »Bogota

3000-

2000-

StockholmZürich

TorontoAlmorty .Guayaquil

1000-- Helsinki

RigaZagreb

0 r T 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

100 200 300 400 500

Homicide rates

600 700 800

Fig. 2: Homicide and robbery rates for 35 cities, 1994

Totschlags- und Diebstahlraten in 35 Städten, 1994Taux d'assassinats et ele vols elans 35 villes, 1994

Source: Fifth United Nations Crime and Justice Survey (Newman 1999)

the Columbian cartels, ChineseTriads, Mafia, Jamaican

posses and Russian gangs resort to violence whereverit is needed to protect their business.

4 The underpinnings of urban violence

The debate on the forces behind the perceived risein urban violence has grown with increased concernabout what appear to be global trends. The issues ofdefinition assume importance and in particular thereis a debate about new forms of violence and their rel¬

evance to the global trend. As Levi & Maguire (2002)have argued, violent crime appears to be a self-evidentcategory yet the dispute about what should be includedis very much ongoing. They cite as contested catego¬ries, injuries that are outcomes of corporate negligence,road accidents, «justiliable» use of force by authoritiesand the rise of terrorism. Some of these contested cat¬

egories are among the most rapidly increasing typesof violence. Ayres & Haywood (2001) reported 3409

people killed and 38,155 seriously injured on British

roads in the year 2000 and in the same year there were96,300 prosecutions for driving under the influence ofalcohol. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)(2001) in the United Kingdom reported 736 deathsand 47,373 major injuries connected with workplacein 2000. There are many other examples that couldbe added to show that the extent of urban violence is

much greater than that recorded in official statistics as

homicide and other forms of physical assaults.

Despite the contested categories. research by the Inter¬national Crime and Justice Survey (Newman 1999)has shown a high level of consensus on 17 morecommon categories of violent crime. Yet there are cul¬

tural and temporal variations. The older sub-culturaltheories (Wolfgang & Ferracuti 1967) argued thatwithin specified groups some forms of criminality wereregarded as acceptable or at least unexceptional formsof behaviour. The early studies referenced, for exam¬ple. Italian communities in American cities in the 1920s

and 1930s but more recent examples include North¬ern Ireland where both sets of protagonists sought

212 Geographica Helvetica Jg. 59 2004/Heft 3

to establish «legitimate» targets for violence. Terroristgroups such as AI Qa'ida are prepared to justify as

acceptable extreme acts of urban violence and arguethat their opponents behave in comparable ways. Theend game in this line of argument is the act of warwhere violence is by definition the means by which theend is achieved. This line of argument, however. takesus well beyond the limits of normal definitions of vio¬lent crime and is pursued no further here. The mainforms of violent crime are homicides and the ränge ofoffences that involve physical injuries to victims as a

result of actions by their perpetrators. It is these formsof violence that put ordinary people at risk and raisesfears of urban safety to high levels. A broad Interpreta¬tion of the findings of the British National Crime Sur¬

veys is that each year 1 in 25 adults are likely to fallvictims to violent crime but hidden in this statistic arethe facts of repeat victimisation on particular types ofpeople and the life style characteristics that place themmost at risk.

Attempts to explain violence are diverse and generalStatements or theories are rarely convincing. They areconsistently undermined by the apparent exceptions.often in a majority of people who fit the criteria but donot apparently commit violent crime. Levi & Maguire(2002) helpfully review the broad types of theoriesof explanation and identify the classical distinctionin the psychological literature between instrumentaland expressive violence. The former Covers activitiesthat employ violence as part of the means of achiev-ing economic gain; the latter refers to violence that is

emotionally satisfying but has no economic gain. Theformer might, for example. include turf wars betweengangs of drug dealers, the latter crimes of passionand domestic violence. Levi & Maguire (2002) definethree broad sets of theories as:

Biology and social biology, which concentrates onthe physiology of the brain and the ways in which itmight lead to loss of control (Moir & Jessell1995).Psycho-analytical and clinical approaches that seekevidence of abnormality about known offendersfrom either their physical/mental make up or theirbackground (Dobash et al. 2001). Caveats withinthis set of concepts include the partialness of theevidence, some offenders come from dysfunctionalbackgrounds but many do not, and the time factorhas to be considered, as offenders appear normal formuch of their lives. Gresswell & Hollin (1994)categorised a set of known serial killers as eithervisionary, missionary, lust-motivated. or power driven.Socio-cultural and social psychological theoriescover a broad canvas. The «interactionists» focuson the relationship between the cognitive sets of theassailants and the behaviour of the victims. Again,sub-cultural and temporal Variation approaches are

widely used and Smith (2002). writing more widelyon crime asserted that offending is most commonlycommitted by young people and is therefore closelylinked to the life course.

These broad schools of thought contain strong basesfor the explanation of many forms of urban violenceand can be fitted to a ränge of situations. They are notnecessarily exclusive or contradictory and the mostgeneral lesson for those attempting to explain criminalbehaviour is that a good package of working theorieswhich can be drawn upon in selective and responsiblemanner offers the best way forward.

5 Spariality and urban violence

As there are temporal variations in the incidence ofcrime and offending, so there are spatial variations.In other words there is strong evidence that there aregeographies of crime, including violent crimes. Thereare questions that relate to whether geography has

any independent Status in the understanding of crimeor whether it is an intervening or dependent variable.The answers are not clear-cut but there is sufficient evi¬

dence now to propose that geography matters and thatthe spatial dimension cannot be ignored. In its guises as

environmental criminology (Brantingham & Brant-ingham 1981).situational crime analysis (Clarke 1995)and crime pattern analysis. the roles of geographyare widely accepted and used by criminologists. Geo¬

graphical Information Systems are essential parts ofboth criminological research and the practical work-ings of many police authorities. The technologies ofspatial analysis can be used both to tease out the pat¬terns of crime and to reveal the complex relationshipsbetween offenders, offences, victims, and environmentsof the city (Hirschfield & Bowers 2001). Crime pro-filing often conlains a strong consideration of placeand space and has allowed detailed and telling inter¬

pretations of specific criminal events (Canter 2003).Bottoms & Wiles (2002: 620) define environmentalcriminology as:

«The study of crime, criminality and victimisation as theyrelate. first, to particular places and. secondly. tothe way inwhich individuals and organizations shape their activitiesspatially. and in so doing are in turn influenced by place-based or spatial factors.»

The general principle associated with environmentalcriminology can be applied effectively to crimes ofviolence in the city. At the level of the simple map¬ping of crimes of violence to reveal patterns. there arestrong Clusters of offences in particular and repetitiveparts of cities. The term «geographies» of urban vio¬lence is used advisedly as different types of crime havedifferent geographies; the Cluster is not consistently

Urban Violence David Herbert 213

in the same place. Many violent crimes that includerobberies, common assault and affray, typically Clus¬

ter around parts of the inner city and places of enter¬tainment such as bars, discos or clubs. The commonfeature of these places is that they are areas of con-flux where people are drawn together. There is there¬fore the particularly urban phenomenon of a crowdor dense gathering of people at one type of place; theconflux itself and the features of the environment inwhich it occurs contributes to the likelihood of vio¬lence. Many assaults and affrays revolve around therelated qualities of the social behaviour patterns inthese places. The clientele is usually young, individ¬uals and groups seeking entertainment with alcoholand increasingly drugs as part of that entertainment.fliese are place-defined situations in which violencecan and does occur. Robberies are also frequent inthe same kinds of locations. The same set of criteriaof conflux and less responsible behaviour may applybut here the crowd provides a target population uponwhich offenders may prey. Mattinson (2001) showedthat around a quarter of all incidents of strangerviolence in the United Kingdom occurred in clubsor pubs on weekend evenings. Over two-thirds ofstranger violence was thought by the victims to havebeen perpetrated by people under the influence ofeither alcohol or drugs. The geography of these formsof urban violence, which could be extended to includesome sexual assaults and homicides, reflects the oppor¬tunity structures of the urban environment. It is theComing together of a set of significant conditions thatproduces the potential for violence but the place itselfhas a role to play. A key factor in the control of suchareas is of course the role of the police. The police in

any city will know the areas where this kind of gratui-tous violence is most likely to occur and will respondaccordingly with additional policing and increasinglythe Strategie deployment of closed cireuit televisioncameras and other crime prevention techniques.

This set of crimes of violence has a distinetive geog¬raphy. The focus in this discussion has been upon theinner city but the same principles apply to other con¬centrations of bars and places of entertainment wherethe same conditions prevail. Other forms of urbanviolence however have quite different geographies.There are crimes of violence in which women or eld-erly people are much more likely to be victims. Forwomen this Covers the ränge of sexual assaults; forboth women and the elderly, muggings and bag-snatch-ings are crimes where they are particularly at risk.There are environments where these risks are great-est such as Shopping centres (Thomas & Bromley1996) and, for sexual assaults in particular, parks andsecluded places. Women and the elderly tend to suffermost from fear of crime. They will seek to avoid cer¬tain parts of the city and to avoid being away from

home during hours of darkness. Again, for criminals,the opportunity structures of the city will lead them tospecific types of victims, whether it is a female joggerin a park or an elderly person homeward bound withShopping.

Domestic violence normally occurs in the home andclearly has a very different kind of geography. Herethe «dark area» may be large and contested. A studyof homicide in the United Kingdom (Flood-Page &Taylor 2003) showed that 72% of female victims knewthe main or only suspect at the time of the offence;partners, ex-partners or lovers killed nearly half offemale victims. Men were more likely to be killed bya stranger and this was the case in 37% of male homi¬cides. There is now a great deal of aecumulated evi¬

dence to show that for all kinds of the most commoncrimes and also for many crimes of violence, sometypes of residential areas and parts of these areashold a disproportionate share of offences and victims.Almost invariably these are deprived residential areaswhere the incidence of crime is added to the widerexperience of disadvanlage and poverty. Some of theclassic British studies of specific problem estates andinner city districts show how disadvantage, disorder,crime and violence have become Standard ingredientsof life. The advent of drugs and changing attitudestowards violence has served to accentuate the prob¬lems. Damer's (1974) early depiction of what he termeda «dreadful enclosure» in Glasgow provides one suchcase study; Barke & Turnbull's (1992) study of Mead-owell is another. In the United States, Wilson (1987)located the urban underclass in the inner parts ofAmerican cities and Davis (1990) drew a graphic pic-ture of the criminalized «places of terror» and com¬pared these with the fortified affluent cells of the urbanrieh. For Stockholm, Wikström's (1991) maps of vio¬lence in public places show a pattern that is highlyconcentrated in the central city whereas domestic vio¬lence is far more dispersed across the city with con¬centrations in poorer public housing areas (Figure3). Where territorial concentrations of urban violenceoccur, concepts such as place, territory and Communitypresent themselves as key components of a preven-tive or ameliorative strategy. Racine (2002) developedthis approach with his attention to territories of grat-ification, respect and recognition. Community actionis notoriously difficult to initiate and sustain but its

potential is considerable. As a footnote to this discus¬

sion, it is worth recording the evidence for regionalconcentrations of violence. Guerry (1833) many yearsago in France identified the «violent south» as thelocus for violence that he linked to hot climates; Har-ries & Brunn (1978) used the same phrase to describethe southern states of the United States though theirculture of violence theory included attitudes towardsgun ownership and race.

214 Geographica Helvetica Jg. 59 2004/Heft 3

Per hectare5 km

>1.5

0.6 to 1.5

0to 0.5

Notincluded

0

^A. Public violence

Per 100 households

'4-5 ¦1.6 to 4.5 |

Otol.5 I

5 km

Notincluded

0

^B. Domestic violence

Fig. 3: Two geographies of violent crime from Stockholm (1982)Die geographische Verteilung von Gewaltverbrechen in Stockholm (1982)Deux geographies de crimes ä Stockholm (1982)Source: Wikström 1991

Urban Violence David Herbert 215

6 Conclusions

There is a widely held consensus that violence is anendemic part of the city on a global scale. There is also

an understanding that the expressions of urban vio¬lence will vary from one part of the world to anotherand a belief that problems of urban violence are get-ting worse. Given the caveats associated with data andthe facts of cultural interpretations. it is unlikely thatanything approaching perfect clarity on these posi¬tions and trends will be achieved but there are groundsfor believing that they are well founded. There arenew dimensions to urban violence. partly related tothe continuing process of globalisation and its reper-cussions. Drug dealing is now an international tradethat touches upon very many cities in many parts of theworld. Organized crime syndicates. often related to the

drug trade have global and far-reaching dimensions.The trail from production areas through to distribu¬tion networks and local suppliers and users. engendersthe prospect of violence at every point along the way.Guns and firearms seem to have become part of theculture of this trade and have spilled over into otherforms of violent crime. Although terrorism has notbeen considered as part of this brief. it has some rolein creating a culture of urban violence and of spawningrelated criminal activities.

We cannot afford to accept violence in a passive way.There is nothing inevitable about its rise in our citiesand many actions are taken to control and reduce its

impact. The police stand in the front line of the strat¬

egy against urban violence and the most importantdeterminant of whether a case will be solved is theinformation supplied by victims or witnesses to thepolice (Maguire & Norris 1992). Bowling & Foster(2002) note that clear up rates for homicide in theUnited Kingdom is now 90% and for violence againstpersons it is 62%.The current Situation of urban terror¬ism prejudices this process by drawing large numbersof police and other resources away from the businessof «conventional» crime. Beyond policing and specialtask forces. there are roles for Community action andfor wider policies that address the roots of economicdisadvantage.

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Wolfgang, M. & F. Ferracuti (1967): The Subcultureof Violence. - London: Tavistock.

Abstract: Urban ViolenceUrban violence has become an endemic feature ofcities in all parts of the world. The consensus is thatlevels of violence are increasing generally but thatthere are significant differences between different partsof the world. Recent studies review these assumptionsand examine the problems associated with monitoringthe incidence of violent crime. There are new dimen¬sions to urban violence that include the rise in the drugtrade, more organized crime and the trend towardsmore use of firearms. Cities offer specific situations inwhich violent crime is more likely to occur. There aregeographies of violent crime that not only point outdifferences between cities but also highlight local con¬centrations of crime within individual cities. Societyseeks to control violent crime, principally through its

criminal justice Systems but also by involving Commu¬nity action and local initiatives.

Zusammenfassung: Städtische GewaltStädtische Gewalt ist ein weltweites Phänomen. Dieübereinstimmende Ansicht ist, dass der Grad derGewalt im allgemeinen ansteigt, doch herrschen mar¬kante Unterschiede in den verschiedenen Teilen derWelt. Kürzliche Studien prüfen diese Vermutungen unduntersuchen die Probleme, die sich bei der Beobach¬tung des Vorkommens von Gewaltverbrechen zeigen.Es gibt neue Dimensionen städtischer Gewalt, die dieZunahme des Drogenhandels beinhalten, das stärkerorganisierte Verbrechen und den Trend zu häufigeremGebrauch von Feuerwaffen. Städte schaffen spezifi¬sche Situationen, in denen Gewaltverbrechen schnel¬ler auftreten. Es gibt geographische Beschreibungenvon Gewaltverbrechen, die nicht nur die Unterschiedezwischen Städten aufzeigen, sondern auch die lokalenKonzentrationen innerhalb individueller Städte. DieGesellschaft versucht. Gewaltverbrechen zu kontrol¬lieren, hauptsächlich durch ihr Kriminal-Justizsystem,jedoch auch durch das Einbinden von gemeinschaftli¬chem Handeln und von lokalen Initiativen.

Resume: Violence urbaineLa violence urbaine est un phenomene mondial. II y a

consensus general sur le fait que le degre de violenceaugmente dans l'ensemble, quoiqu'il existe des differen¬ces notoires dans les diverses parties du globe. Desetudes recentes ont analyse le degre de veracite de ces

suppositions et examine les problemes poses par l'ob-servation de l'apparition des crimes. II existe de nou¬velles dimensions de la violence urbaine, qui integrentl'accroissement du trafic de drogues, l'organisation ren-forcee de la criminalite et la tendance au recoursplus frequent aux armes ä feu. Les villes suscitent dessituations specifiques qui induisent plus rapidementdes crimes. II existe des descriptions geographiques decrimes, qui ne revelent pas seulement des differencesentre villes, mais aussi des concentrations locales ä l'in¬terieur des villes prises individuellement. La societetente de contröler les crimes, notamment par son Sys¬

teme de juridiction criminelle, mais aussi par le recoursä une action collective et ä des initiatives locales.

Teaching of Geography - relevant questions- What reasons are given for the marked difference

in urban violence between different regions of theworld?

- Why should the incidence of urban violence andthe chances of being victimized be much higherin specific districts or neighbourhoods within majorcities?

- What changes within Western societies may lead toan increase in the levels of urban violence?

Urban Violence David Herbert 217

- List key policy strategies of cities that appear tobe most successful in containing and amelioratingthe impacts of urban violence.

- Which theories aim to explain the causes of crimi-nality?

- What importance can be attributed to a geograph-ically based approach of Observation in connectionwith criminality?

- Which types of crimes are committed in what kindsof environment?

- Describe the role that local communities can play incontributing towards the understanding and reduc¬tion of urban violence.

- One of the problems of studies of crime researchis the fact that many offences go undetected. Howrelevant is this general problem for urban violenceresearch?

- Is a general theory of urban violence viable? Towhat degree do cultural, spatial and temporal fac¬

tors influence the general theory?

Prof. Dr. David Herbert, Department of Geography,University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, SwanseaSA2 SPP, United Kingdom.e-mail: D.T.Herbert@Swansea.ac.uk

Manuskripteingang/received/manuscrit entre le23.1.2004Annahme zum Druck/accepted for publication/acceptepour Timpression: 20.8.2004