Crime And Crime

Introduction

Criminal activity continues to be a major concern in the present-day world, where most countries are faced with high levels of crime (Ackerman & Murray, 2004). There is now a consensus among various researchers (see for example; Ackerman & Murray, 2004; Eck et al., 2005 & Levine, 2006) that crime is unevenly distributed across various areas. In other words, crimes tend to cluster in some areas and disperse in others (Eck et al., 2005 p. 1). Individuals understand this kind of knowledge in their settlements, and use them in their daily activities’ decisions, by shunning those places they consider as highly vulnerable to crime. For example, choices of neighbourhoods, schools, stores, streets, and recreation are mostly guided by the understanding “that their chances of being a victim are greater in some of these places than in others” (Eck et al., 2005 p. 1). This suggests that there is a spatial pattern in crime, which is why people are not equally fearful of all places.

Conversely, the frequency of crime (property and violent crime) according to Van Dijk (1999) in Ackerman and Murray (2004 p.424) in many regions of the world is related to problems of economic hardship among the young. For example, Ackerman and Murray, (2004 p.424) showed that “more than half of the victimization rates in 49 countries (representing all world regions) for burglaries, thefts, and thefts from cars can be explained by level of urbanization, economic deprivation, and affluent lifestyle”. Even though the concentration of crime is said to be closely related to social class (deprivation), the spatial consequences of crime progressively blighted neighbourhoods, due to the non-stationary status of the class.

Given that the concentration of crime...

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...such as targeting patrols to hot spots, conducting surveillance for deployment of officers, scheduling vacations and making crime alerts available to neighborhood watch groups (Gorr & Harries, 2003).

Aim and objectives

The aim of this study is to analyse the framework of crime incidence in Liverpool using quantitative techniques (hot spot maps), with a view to evaluating the relationship between some of the socio-economic variables of the population and the clustering of crime in the city.

Objectives

1. To explore the spatial relationship between crime and social inequalities (deprivation) in the city.

2. To investigate the frequency and distribution of crime and harassment in the city.

3. To create an up to date crime map patterns of Liverpool, with a view to enhancing the understanding of crime in the city for proper policing and allocation of resources.