Realities of crime, society and landuse in the Mediterranean : JANUS I

Abstract

This project is partly financed by the ISEC Programme 2009 Action Grants “PREVENTION OF AND FIGHT AGAINST CRIME.” The application form was submitted on the 31st July 2009 and the project was awarded on the 15th December 2010. The duration of this project was of 36 months, starting from the 15th December 2010 and ending on the 14th December 2013. The project has two main partners – the Institute of Criminology (today the Department of Criminology) within the University of Malta and Associazione Nazionale Famiglie Emigranti: Delegazione Regionale Sicilia. In the original application there was also an associated partner – the Provincia Regionale di Trapani. This partner later retreated from the project due to administrative changes in the divisions of the regions in Sicily. The concept was developed through an evaluation of a PhD spatio-temporal research (Formosa, 2007) on crime in Malta (environmental criminology) reviewing the theory of social disorganisation, as based on the concept of human urban ecology (Maguire et al., 1997; 308). Urban ecology theorizes that there is a positive correlation between crime, social issues and landuse (Entorf et al., 2000). Such studies emphasise the vitality of social landscapes and how they impinge on or are impacted by the physical landscapes. On the other hand Felson and Clark (1998), inspiring themselves from Opportunity Theory, studied the way urban structures and landscapes offered opportunities for crime while Routine Activities Theory postulates that each offender and victim follow repeatable paths or routines that are delineated by the space they live in over time (Ekblom, 2001). The above theories all fit in with environmental criminology theory in that the fundamental issue at stake is space. Urban planning clusters offence targets in specific areas, through increasing or reducing accessibility for opportunities. As against opportunities in rural areas where a person is more conspicuous, urban areas become attractive to offenders especially where an area becomes prosperous (Entorf et al., 2000). Criminological research into the physical landscape enables researchers to analyse and evaluate the areas under study, identify those characteristics that yield criminal activity and help to predict future criminal activities. In turn the analysis of the social interactionism in an area enables successful implementation of crime preventive strategies (Chainey and Ratcliffe, 2005; Schnieder and Kitchen, 2007).