Walls and warriors

… thinning out a city does not ensure safety from crime and fear of crime. This is one of the conclusions that can be drawn within individual cities too, where pseudo-suburbs or superannuated suburbs are ideally suited to rape, muggings, beatings, holdups, and the like.

Conclusions

In terms of the argument put forward here it would be wrong to suggest that the changing ideology, the emergent ‘new South Africa’, is responsible for the new wave of crime haunting the cities. Although rising unemployment needs to be regarded as an important factor, it could be argued that the configuration of urban space does not only set up the potential but also enables a criminal pattern to develop.

But before definite conclusions can be drawn, case studies will have to be carried out in which encounter rates, crime rates and other variables are plotted against measure of spatial integration. If, as is suggested here, these correlations are strong then the task facing architects and planners in reconfiguring the ‘new’ South African city will be made that much clearer. In theory, at least, the use of enclosures and walls in that new urban landscape would at best appear to be of little practical value, at worst highly dangerous.