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Zero Tolerance or Community Tolerance? Managing Crime in High Crime Areas

NCJ Number
182881
Author(s)
Sandra Walklate; Karen Evans
Date Published
1999
Length
184 pages
Annotation
A longitudinal study conducted from 1994 to 1996 examined risk and fear of crime in two inner-city neighborhoods in Salford, England, with emphasis on how people who live, work, and go to school in designated high-crime areas manage their routine daily lives and construct their own responses to risk of crime and fear of crime.
Abstract
The research focused on the personal and individual ways in which the participants managed their own fear of crime and to what extent their management practices resulted from their own perceptions regarding which actions were risky and which were safe within a local context. The starting point for the research was a consideration of neighborhood, voluntary organization, and community. Data collection techniques included ethnographic fieldwork; a survey of residential households and business and community organizations; focus group discussions with local people, students, and police officers; and a review of crime statistics. Results revealed the problems in assuming that all inner-city areas are the same. Findings suggested that community safety strategies need to recognize and reflect specific community dynamics and relationship; those setting policies for change need to be aware of the importance of the local context in which that policy is set. Figures, appended methodological information and index, author index, and 115 references