Urbanization and Crime

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With a 10% increase in crime rate since 2009, budding city St. John’s (Newfoundland and Labrador) soared 19.2% above the national average and in 2010 placed as seventh in Canada’s overall crime rated cities (Brennan, 2011). The level of crime relative to suburban or rural areas has recently become an accepted theory in criminology. Regardless of the data source used, crime statistics consistently reflect that urban crime rates are substantially greater than crime rates in non-urban areas. More so, population size has been shown to be an important predictor of crime rates across cities, not only in Canada, but all over the world. St. John’s has developed and grown economically over the past few years, thriving off the offshore oil and gas industry who’s profits have injected about $800 million into the local economy boosting the city’s Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) attributed to the St. John’s Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) by an estimated 5.0% in 2010 to $9.8 billion, that adding to an increase of 5.4% for the province as a whole (City of St. John’s. 2011). A clear multiplier effect in population growth can be observed as St. John’s population increased by 8.9% between the years of 2001 and 2010 during the time in which the gas and oil and nickel industries settled in the area. Now, as one of the most rapidly developing cities in the country, St. John’s is getting a taste of one of the more serious social backfires to urbanization. Urban development in St. John's is increasing crime opportunities and the overall crime rate in the city and province. Supported not only by up to date statistics, this idea is also supported by year long criminal and social behavioral experiments conducted by trained psychologists such as Wolfgang...

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...’s and lead to long term solutions in adapting to the new and still growing city of St. John’s.

Works Cited

Calhoun, J. B. (1962). Population Density and Social Pathology. Scientific American, (206), 139-148.

Conklin, G. H. (2004, Fall). Article Review: The Impact of Density: The Importance of Nonlinearlity and Selection on Flight and Fight Responses. [Review of the journal article The Impact of Density: The Importance of Nonlinearlity and Selection on Flight and Fight Responses. ]. Sociation Today The Official Journal of The North Carolina Sociological , 2(2). Retrieved from http://www.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/crowding.htm

Department of Economic Development, Tourism & Culture City of St.John’s. (January 2012). State of the Economy St. John’s Metro [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.stjohns.ca/cityservices/economic/state_of_the_economy.pdf

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