Skip to main content

Community Safety Maps: Child-Driven Crime Opportunity Profiling

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 12))

  • 710 Accesses

Abstract

Children’s ability to avoid a danger of crime may depend on the way in which these dangers are predicted. Based on the concept of crime opportunity theory, community safety maps represent a learning tool that enhances one’s ability to recognize whether or not a location is prone to crime just by examining its landscape. This aspect resembles crime opportunity profiling conducted in the United Kingdom in that crime opportunity generators serve as the point of focus and that visual analysis and photographic image-based explanations of the potential crime scene are employed. After incorporating community safety maps in elementary school lessons, the following results were conformed to appear: an improvement in the risk prediction ability of children, the forming of social bonds that help prevent delinquency, and a decline in the occurrence rate of street crime.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Baumer, E., Wright, R., Kristinsdottir, K., & Gunnlaugsson, H. (2002). Crime, shame, and recidivism: The case of Iceland. British Journal of Criminology, 42(1), 40–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bayley, D. H. (1976). Forces of order: Police behavior in Japan and the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blades, M. (1997). Research paradigms and methodologies for investigating children’s wayfinding. In N. Foreman & R. Gillett (Eds.), Handbook of spatial research paradigms and methodologies (Spatial cognition in the child and adult, Vol. 1, pp. 103–129). Hove: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bottoms, A. E. (1994). Environmental criminology. In M. Maguirc, R. Morgan, & R. Reiner (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braithwaite, J. (1989). Crime, shame and reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brantingham, P. J., & Brantingham, P. L. (1981). Environmental criminology. Beverly Hills: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brantingham, P. J., & Brantingham, P. L. (1984). Patterns in crime. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, R. V. (1997). Introduction. In R. V. Clarke (Ed.), Situational crime prevention: Successful case studies (2nd ed.). Guilderland: Harrow and Heston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, L. E., & Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach. American Sociological Review, 44, 588–608.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornish, D. B., & Clarke, R. V. (1986). Introduction. In D. B. Cornish & R. V. Clarke (Eds.), The reasoning criminal: Rational choice perspectives on offending. New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, A. (1998). Crime prevention and community safety. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowe, T. D. (2000). Crime prevention through environmental design: Applications of architectural design and space management concepts (2nd ed.). Boston: National Crime Prevention Institute, Butterworth-Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Felson, M. (1998). Crime and everyday life (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Felson, M., & Clarke, R. V. (1998). Opportunity makes the thief: Practical theory for crime prevention (Police research series no. 98). London: Home Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilling, D. (1997). Crime prevention: Theory, policy and politics. London: UCL Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haramiishi, Y., & Iwai, N. (2008). Shogakko ni okeru Kiken Kaihi Ryoku wo Minitsukeru tameno Anzen Kyoiku no Arikata [An ideal style of safety education to enhance the risk avoidance ability of children in elementary schools]. Syakai Anzen, 69, 17–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., Kosterman, R., Abbott, R., & Hill, K. G. (1999). Preventing adolescent health-risk behaviors by strengthening protection during childhood. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 153(3), 226–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herbert, D. T. (1989). Crime and place: An introduction. In D. J. Evans & D. T. Herbert (Eds.), The geography of crime (pp. 1–15). London: Roudedge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hira, S. (2007). A preliminary analysis of effects of local safety mapping activity. Journal of Fukuyama University Psychological Services, 1, 35–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. (2008). Chiiki Komyuniti Saisei [Regional community renaissance]. Tokyo: MIC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelling, G., & Coles, C. (1996). Fixing broken windows: Restoring and reducing crime in our communities. New York: Touchstone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Komiya, N. (1999). A cultural study of the low crime rate in Japan. British Journal of Criminology, 39(3), 369–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, O. (1996). Creating defensible space. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell, I., Baumer, E., & Hughes, N. (2008). Recidivism in the Republic of Ireland. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 8(2), 123–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oxley, J., Reijnhoudt, P., van Soomeren, P., Beckford, C., Jongejan, A., & Jager, J. (2005). Crime Opportunity Profiling of Streets (COPS): A quick crime analysis – rapid implementation approach. Watford: BRE Bookshop for BRE Trust.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilley, N. (2009). Crime prevention. Cullompton: Willan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, J. Q., & Kelling, G. (1982, March). Broken windows: The police and neighborhood safety. Atlantic Monthly, 29–38.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nobuo Komiya .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

About this entry

Cite this entry

Komiya, N. (2017). Community Safety Maps: Child-Driven Crime Opportunity Profiling. In: Freeman, C., Tranter, P., Skelton, T. (eds) Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 12. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-035-3_14

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics