'Designing out Crime' – A Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Crime in Umeå

Abstract: The creation of sustainable and safe environments nowadays moves more and more into focus for urban planners and architects. Cities should be designed in a way to contribute to social cohesion, shaping an inclusive environment and focusing on the wellbeing of its citizens. Nevertheless, these processes can be undermined by public crime and the fear of crime, which is not only affecting aspects of personal safety but also affecting the people’s behaviour. Reasons why criminality occurs are manifold, impacted by a dynamic set of socioeconomic, demographic, personal but also environmental aspects. In recent years especially the impact of factors related to urban and environmental design respectively planning received rising attention in the field of crime prevention. However, the implementation of strategies regarding ‘crime prevention through environmental design’ or ‘designing out crime’ is still in its early stage in Sweden.   This study aims to investigate spatial and temporal patterns of public crime for the case of Umeå in order to identify potential risk areas, which could receive particular attention regarding crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). In this sense a GIS based spatial analysis had the aim to detect statistically significant hotspots of crime and furthermore to assess the development of these hotspots over time. In order to understand the nature of public crime and criminal behaviour in Umeå in a more holistic way, also temporal aspects regarding the occurrence of crime were analysed. One particularly vulnerable neighbourhood was examined with a qualitative field observation regarding the principles of crime prevention through environmental design in order to assess in which way the built environment is designed and suited to prevent and deter criminality.   Umeå displays rather clear patterns of higher crime activity, assigned to seasonal, weakly and daily periods, which are connected to higher activity in the public space. Also from a spatial perspective certain patterns are detectable with a higher vulnerability for crime at spots which generate higher activity such as shopping areas or neighbourhoods with nightlife and transport hub functions, and in general neighbourhoods with a higher building density. The neighbourhood of Ålidhem displayed thereby a high concentration of criminality, marked as a constant or even intensifying hotspot for the entire period of investigation. The results of the field observation regarding principles of CPTED are especially indicating a lack of maintenance and furthermore the street and building layout is contributing to disorientation. On the other hand, the area is in most cases well equipped for natural surveillance and provides a high amount of locations for leisure and recreation in order strengthen social cohesion.