Urban Problems

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Urban Problems
Geg309 Urban Geography
Instructor Jun Yan Geography Department SUNY at
Buffalo
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Last Class

• Urban Poverty
• Whats urban poverty?
• Cycle of poverty
• Types of poverty spaces
• Emergence of underclass

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Outline

• Urban Crime
• Urban structure and crime
• Spatial patterns
• Effects of urban crimes

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Urban Crime in Buffalo
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Urban Crime in Tonawanda
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Crime Factors

• Density size of the community population
• population composition
• Economic status
• Stability of population
• Modes of transportation and highway system
• Cultural conditions of the community
• Effective strength of the law enforcement
  agencies
• Attitude of the public toward law enforcement
  problems
• Cooperation of adjoining/overlapping police
  agencies
• Administrative and investigative efficiency of
  the local law enforcement agency
• Climate, including seasonal weather conditions

Rhode Island State Police Department
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Urban Structure Crime

• To explain the linkage between urban structure
  crime, four frames have been used
• Economic effects poverty, inequality, and crime
• Social disorganization high population
  heterogeneity, high mobility ? high crime rates
• Demographic effects age of the population, youth
• Effects of lifestyle and routine activities
  composition of communities varies

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Economic Effects

• The development of a culture of poverty that
  embraces a violence as symbol of identity
  toughness
• Economic marginalization leads to anger
  resentment as motivation for crime violence
• Limited inter- and intra-group interaction
  undermines the development of formal informal
  mechanisms of control

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Economic Effects
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Social Disorganization

• Rapid population turnover leads to unstable
  social structures
• Increased diversity associated with ecological
  change promote additional instability
• Hard to maintain local social orders
• Even when neighborhood is upgrading of more
  affluent residents

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Demographic Effects

• Crime statistics show that crime rates are higher
  in late-teens and twenties
• Therefore, the change of population composition
  will impact the rates of crime and patterns of
  crime in the city

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Demographic Effects
Arrest in US by Age, 1999
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Lifestyle And Routine Activities

• Time-space routines are important
• absence of protectors
• motivated offender
• suitable target
• Vulnerable population
• Elderly, single mother, children
• Less police patrol

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Spatial Patterns of Urban Crime

• Based on either offenders residences or the
  location of the crime
• Hot-spot Detection locations/places with much
  larger crime occurrence than usual or other
  locations/places

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Spatial Patterns of Urban Crime In Buffalo
Arson 1996
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Spatial Patterns of Urban Crime In Buffalo
Burglary 1996
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Spatial Patterns of Urban Crime In Buffalo
Drug 1996
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Spatial Patterns of Urban Crime In Buffalo
Drug, Burglary, Drug, 1996
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Minority Population In Buffalo
Black population in Buffalo (2000)
Hispanic population in Buffalo (2000)
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Racial Discrimination?
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Median Household Income In Buffalo
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Poverty In Erie County
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Racial Discrimination!
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Perception of Urban Crime

• Mental map of crime rates in Philadelphia

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Resources

• National Institute of Justice
• Mapping Analysis of Public Safety (MAPS) of
  National Institute of Justice
• National Criminal Justice Reference Service
• Bureau of Justice Statistics
• Buffalo Police Department

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Next Class

• Homelessness
• Reading chp 11. pp 315320