Crime and the Urban Area: Explaining Neighbourhood Change and Crime

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to examine the connections between neighbourhood decline, crime and disorder. Since space limitations preclude an examination of all the literature in this burgeoning area, the chapter has two subsidiary aims. First, to weave analyses of crime and urban change (outlined in Chapter 1) more closely together. Second, to demonstrate the importance of this approach in a specific context, that of the mixed housing areas in Merseyside, which because of recent housing policies are becoming a feature of the contemporary urban landscape in Britain. The chapter is divided into three main sections. The first examines how changes in, and differences between, neighbourhood crime and offender rates have been explained in selected British studies. The second discusses insights from research in the USA on community change and crime. The third reflects upon sections one and two and synthesizes some of the key insights that find utility in the mixed housing areas in this study.