TITLE:
Urban Crime and Pattern Conceptions: Departuring from Spatiality
AUTHORS:
Hesam Kamalipour, Gholamhossein Memarian, Mohsen Faizi
KEYWORDS:
Urban Crime, Pattern, Crime Prevention through Environmental Design, Fear of Crime, Pattern Language, Spatiality
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.2 No.6,
June
11,
2014
ABSTRACT: Various conceptions of pattern from biology, computer science, and mathematics to environmental design, psychology, and sociology give rise to the multiplicity of definitions, descriptions, applications, scales, and common features of spatial patterns in urban environments. Considering the complex relations between spatiality and sociality in place theory, the study tends to explore a growing body of knowledge in conceptions of urban crime and pattern. Placing the investigations of urban crime in relation to sociality and spatiality, the paper advocates for departuring from spatiality that is the common ground between urban crime and pattern conceptions. Hence, dismissing both deterministic and free-will approaches to environmental design and addressing the urban crime as a complex city problem, the study argues that adopting a kind of spatial knowledge and possibilistic approach is critical for both understanding and transforming the city in order to investigate the issue of urban crime in relation to spatial patterns.