1. Effect of crime on
communities
Comparison of:
Affluent vs less affluent;
Rural vs urban
2. Crime in the UK – spread
Crime in the UK is spread out around the
country
In general most crime happens:
In big cities
Close to popular drinking areas
Popular nightspots
Socially deprived areas
Edinburgh will be analysed as an example
3. Crime in Edinburgh – affluence and crime
The top 5 places with most Criminal
Percentage
crime in Edinburgh are: Area of all
incidents
Edinburgh
New Town – 5382
Waverly – 4125 New Town 5382 8%
West End – 3678 Waverly 4125 6%
Niddrie – 3254
West End 3678 5%
Wester Hailes – 2234
Niddrie 3254 5%
Them alone make up 27% of Wester Hailes 2234 3%
all crime in Edinburgh
despite being 8% of areas.
6. What does this mean?
Crime happens in popular nightspots and
drinking areas (New Town, Waverly and
West End)
Crime happens in areas of social deprivation
(Niddrie and Wester Hailes)
7. Effects of crime in communities
“Crime not only affects economic productivity when victims miss
work, but communities also are affected through loss of tourism
and retail sales. Even the so-called victimless crimes of
prostitution, drug abuse, and gambling have major social
consequences. Drug abuse affects worker productivity, uses
public funds for drug treatment programs and medical attention,
and leads to criminal activity to support the expenses of a drug
habit.”
“Fear of crime in areas [where crime has happened] steadily
increases and the resulting economic and social effects can span
out into the surrounding city. Residents become more withdrawn
and defensive and less committed to their communities. The very
social fibre of the community is weakened.”
Law Library - American Law and Legal Information
http://law.jrank.org/
8. Effects of crime in communities
This means that communities that suffer from
crime are more likely to continue suffering
from crime and its crime rates to increase
unless “[they] adopt neighborhood watch
programs to revitalize the community or avoid
its decay.”
However this is expensive therefore prevention of
crime via education programs for young people in
criminalised areas is often though to be a better
technique.
9. However…
This does not solve the crime problems in the affluent areas.
In Kent “57 plain-clothes officers, sniffer dogs and patrol officers
[were] out in force in a crackdown on drug dealing and anti-social
behaviour” according to the BBC.
In Ipswitch “Work is already underway to combat the tide of crime
with a number of projects in place. These include a night-time
economy plan, creation of a dedicated night-time police team,
taxi marshalling, introduction of a violent crime car and increased
police presence over the weekends.” as the Evening Star
explained.
However some people are partial to these kinds of approaches
as they do not trust the police service themselves. We have
already been shown examples of how discriminatory and
ineffective police can be.
10. Rural vs Urban
When people say crime they usually mean
urban crime but rural crime must also be
considered.
11. Useful links
A new website launched on the 1st of
February this year determining crime street
by street in the whole of the UK –
http://www.police.uk – has been overloaded
since its launch with over 75,000 clicks per
minute. It is currently inaccessible due
overload.
