A Criminological Analysis on Crime Scene Related Environmental Factors in the Western Province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Environmental criminology, as a subfield of criminology, focuses on crime patterns within specific natural and built environments and investigates the effects of these external variables on people's cognitive behaviour. The primary goal of criminology is to prevent and control crime, and when it comes to the environment, it can be divided into two broad categories: crimes against the environment and crime scenes involving environmental factors. Identifying crime scenes based on environmental factors is divided into three broad categories: natural, built, and social. Architectural and landscape factors are the two types of built factors. This research study is expected to identify how cities, neighbourhoods, public buildings, and private dwellings can control and prevent criminal incidents and the natural environment based on natural and built environmental factors. The purposive sampling method was used in the research study and the purpose of this study was to select a diverse range of reported crime cases from the Western Province of Sri Lanka for 18 months (2017-2019). Murder, rape, child sexual abuse, grave assault, theft, burglary, and robbery were chosen as grave crimes for the study, and 115 crime scenes were observed. The main objective of this criminological research study was to focus on and identify the related ecological factors. In urban and semi-urban areas, built and social eco factors have been major criminogenic factors. Natural eco-elements were a source of crime in semi-urban areas. Each type of serious crime observed had dominant built and social eco factors that varied depending on the crime's location and the offender and victimised parties' routine activities. Following more in-depth research, controlling and preventing crime can be achieved through the management of environmental elements.