BASED ON A GREAT VARIETY OF SOURCES (E.G., VERIFIED OFFICIAL STATISTICS, COMPUTERIZED DATA BASES, CENSUS FIGURES, CRIMINAL STATISTICS, JUVENILE COURT RECORDS, QUESTIONNAIRES, THIS BOOK ATTEMPTS TO FIND SIGNIFICANT CONFIGURATIONS OF CRIME AND CRIMINALITY IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT. THE TARGET CITY, KIEL, EXPERIENCED A LARGE POPULATION GROWTH IN WORLD WAR II, BUT IS NOW UNDER 300,000 INHABITANTS. THE POPULATION IS HETEROGENEOUS, WITH GUEST WORKERS FROM A VARIETY OF COUNTRIES AND ETHNIC AND RACIAL BACKGROUNDS CONCENTRATED IN HIGH-CRIME AREAS, WHICH HAS CREATED THE MISLEADING IMPRESSION THAT FOREIGN WORKERS ARE ESPECIALLY PRONE TO CRIME. RESEARCH TECHNIQUES AND APPROACHES FROM THE FIELD OF CRIMINAL GEOGRAPHY WERE APPLIED TO KIEL AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS. IN ADDITION TO THE OFFICIAL DATA SOURCES, THIS STUDY ALSO EXAMINED THE CITY'S JUVENILE POPULATION BY MEANS OF A QUESTIONNAIRE DISTRIBUTED IN SCHOOLS (610 UTILIZABLE RESPONSES WERE OBTAINED). THIS SELF-REPORTED INFORMATION REVEALED JUVENILE BEHAVIOR PATTERNS AND HELPED IDENTIFY TYPES OF DELINQUENT ACTIVITIES AND SPECIAL CRIME-CONDUCIVE GATHERING PLACES BY NEIGHBORHOOD. A COMPOSITE SOCIAL AND CRIMINAL STRUCTURE OF KIEL IS PRESENTED, DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN CITY SECTIONS AND DESCRIBING THE POPULATION OF EACH COMMUNITY, NEIGHBORHOOD, AND SUBDIVISION ACCORDING TO DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES. CRIMINAL CONFIGURATION REPORTS DESCRIBE IN DETAIL THE INCIDENCE OF ALL TYPES OF OFFENSES BY LOCATION AND OFFENDER, NOTING THAT PROPERTY CRIMES ARE THE MOST FREQUENT OFFENSES. JUDGED BY COMPARATIVE CRITERIA, KIEL IS DEFINED AS A CRIMINALLY BALANCED CITY BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH KIEL'S CRIMINALITY RATE IS AS HIGH AS THOSE OF MANY LARGER GERMAN CITIES, NO SPECIAL CRIME CONFIGURATION EMERGED FROM THE STUDY. WITH RESPECT TO JUVENILE DELINQUENTS, STUDY DATA SEEMED TO INDICATE SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION AS A PRIMARY CRIMINOGENIC FORCE. DATA ON FOREIGN GUEST WORKERS WAS EVALUATED WITH RESPECT TO SOCIOECONOMIC AND CULTURAL CONDITIONS AND THE CRIMINOGENIC CHARACTERISTICS OF VARIOUS SECTIONS OF THE CITY. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT GUEST WORKERS INHERIT THE STIGMA OF CRIME-PRONE NEIGHBORHOODS, WITHOUT THEMSELVES BEING INVOLVED IN DISPROPORTIONATE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY. EXTENSIVE TABULAR DATA, GRAPHS, AND CITY MAPS ARE INCLUDED. APPENDIXES CONTAIN LISTS OF VARIABLES, DEFINITIONS OF TERMS, THE CORRELATION MATRIX, AND SURVEY INSTRUMENTS. AN EXTENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY AND A LIST OF ACRONYMS ARE APPENDED. THE BOOK HAS NO INDEX. --IN GERMAN.