Criminal geography

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Criminal geography is a sub-discipline of both criminology and criminology and geography . The subject of investigation is the spatial nature of crime . The term is used synonymously with that of criminal ecology. On the one hand, criminal geography is one of the etiological approaches of criminology (causal research). As criminological criminal geography, on the other hand, it determines the relationships that exist between the specific structure of spaces and the local and temporal crime occurring in them. This also results in the spatial planning of the prevention and combating of criminal offenses.

history

The beginnings of criminal geography can be found in the beginning or middle of the 19th century. Criminal geography goes back to the researchers André Michel Guerry and Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quételet . Guerry researched whether the place of residence has anything to do with the likelihood of becoming a criminal. He referred to the population of the community in which the person lived or grew up and documented factors such as poverty , unemployment rate or level of education. Important theories on criminal geography came from the Chicago School in the early 1920s . This used the criminal geography with regard to the increasing urbanization and its social consequences. This is how the term delinquency area was coined: One compared several zones within Chicago , which differed in their crime statistics; these were observed over an extended period of time with several changes being made, and it was concluded that these actions made little change. The researchers explained that the social environment in particular is extremely important. Criminal geographical results influenced urban planning ; one tried to consciously avoid such zones.

Situation in Europe

In Europe , criminal geography received attention in the early 1960s. So was z. B. investigated juvenile delinquency in London and Cologne . In Nuremberg , as in Chicago, the crime rate of individual districts was investigated, among other things through the pioneering work of Horst Herold .

Today criminal geography is known and widespread throughout Europe. The social contexts are of particular interest; thus it is explained that it often happens that social problems are concentrated in one place. One then speaks of a “ social hot spot ”. This statement comes from a study in Switzerland ; There, the connection between acts of violence and the spatial structure was examined and it was found that there are negative effects when the family environment is disturbed or when the person's circle of friends lives in the same neighborhood. The Criminal Geography now works with about crime maps (Engl. Crime mapping ) and related geographic information systems a. The Metropolitan Police Service ( Scotland Yard ) alone employs around 400 criminal geographers. When police Bayern the software since 2014 Precobs used to investigate burglaries faster.

After criminal geography in German-speaking countries was primarily a domain of criminology, a "critical criminal geography " developed around the year 2000 within the framework of critical geography . In particular, the view on which crime mapping is based is problematized, namely that geographical space can serve as an explanatory factor for social conditions.

Broken Windows Theory

Several theories were developed in the years that followed; one of the best known of these is the broken windows theory . She assumes that the failure to repair broken or damaged window panes is a sign of the lack of control of criminal behavior and thus of the slow decline of a residential area. The social problems there would continue to increase through feedback effects. The theory is the basis for the zero tolerance strategy of some city administrations, which sanctions any legal violations in order to prevent further neglect.

See also

literature

  • Dominik Gerstner and Dietrich Oberwittler : Kriminalgeographie Baden-Württemberg (2003-2007): socio-economic and spatial determinants of registered crime. Max Planck Inst. for foreign and boarding. Criminal Law, Freiburg im Breisgau 2011, ISBN 978-3-86113-111-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut Frommer: The Nuremberg Security Pact. (PDF; 560 kB), June 2002 , accessed on September 17, 2012
  2. ↑ Michael Jürgs : BKA, Europol, Scotland Yard: the hunters of evil. Bertelsmann, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-570-10008-0 , p. 271 ff.
  3. ↑ Steve Przybilla: Commissioner crystal ball. nzz.ch, December 22, 2015, accessed on December 22, 2015
  4. ↑ Georg Glasze, Robert Pütz, Manfred Rolfes (eds.): Discourse - City - Crime: Urban (in) security from the perspective of urban research and critical criminal geography . transcript, Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 978-3-89942-408-9 .