This is the introductory chapter of a book on Community-Based Urban Violence Prevention to be published in January 2015. Whereas conventional approached to cobat urban violence either rely on state/police control or 'crime prevention through environmental design', in countries where these strategies don't work the population itself is taking action to protect themselves. The book analysed case experiences of such approaches from Sub-Sahara Africa, East Africa, South and Central America, Jordania, Inda and China.

A person's perception of the level of security at a specific location depends on many factors, including past experiences in that location, the actual crime suffered by the population and more. Thus, when the individual perception that a location is insecure becomes the general rule is when the perception of security becomes an attribute of the region rather than the fears of some of its individuals, hence the relevance of aggregating individual perceptions of security into a single regional perception of security. Residents of two different regions, which have the same levels of crime, of a similar nature, may have different perceptions of the level of security. The perception of security associated with a particular place is relevant by itself but is much more useful when compared to the perception of other regions or when the perception changes over time and hence a ranking of the perception levels from different places would be a useful tool. A metric is suggested here to determine first the regional perception of security from a location and then to quantify its relationship with different victimisation rates. We quantify the relationship between the perception of security and different victimisation rates, based on data obtained from Mexico through victimisation surveys.

Journal of Human Security. This article applies the human security perspective to the urban setting and examines how it can be employed to address city violence and deprivation. The author examines specific urban-based human security practices and evaluates both the potential and limitations of urban planning and policy as a means toward human security. Urban policymaking and planning shaped by human security objectives has the capability to create more equitable physical cities, but also to connect the management of the built environment to those deeper and root issues of disadvantage, marginalisation, and exclusion that are key drivers of crime, violence, and human insecurity. This work considers the local pragmatic and policy implications of the human security perspective. It does this by analysing the application of the human security concept to cities and exploring how this concept can be used to address significant urban challenges such as violence and deprivation. Conceptually, the article links the literatures in security and development studies with those from urban policy and planning domains. Specific spatial and economic interventions within urban planning that can meaningfully enhance human security are identified, and tensions and limitations in their use are explored.

The occurrence of crime in an area cannot be separated from the community, which is a complex configuration of space, physical environment and people. The physical environment is always related to the risk of crime as the perception of security in a given environment is shaped by people’s everyday experience and movement within that environment. As a result, different elements of physical planning can be informed by the perception of local people regarding insecure spaces. People can assess which environments can impart the feelings of safety and which can induce fear in a given area. In this study the relationship between street crime occurrence and the physical environment is observed through the perception of local people in Dhaka city. For the research, four study areas are selected from Dhaka city according to different spatial layout and income characteristics. Different participatory methods are applied for the analysis based on focus group discussions with various types of people in the study area. From the perceptions of local people, different factors of physical environment and street crimes are identified and visualized as people-crime scenarios for each study area. Some factors, like people’s interaction with an area, are identified as important to improve the environment for a secure community. The suggestions of local people regarding their feelings of security can facilitate crime control scenarios for different neighbourhoods in an urban area.

The 21st century is often heralded as the ‘urban century’. For the first time in history the majority of the world’s population now live in cities, a figure forecast to rise to over 60% by 2030. Increasing urbanization raises crucial questions for security. At one end of the spectrum, it has been claimed that ‘the scale of armed violence in large urban areas frequently exceeds that of all but the most devastating of current wars’, while at the other, questions of poverty, health, and human insecurity are presented as finding their starkest manifestations in urban settings, particularly in the developing world. Urban people repeatedly stress the anxiety and fear they experience because they feel insecure and vulnerable. Most say they feel less secure and more vulnerable today than in previous times. They describe security as stability and continuity of livelihood, predictability of relationships, feeling safe and belonging to a social group. Forms and degrees of security and insecurity vary by region and differ by gender. Women are vulnerable to abuse and violence in the home. Men, particularly young men, are more likely to be picked up by the police. The origins and nature of insecurities are related to types of threat, shock and stress. People most frequently mention the following: Insecurities of work and livelihood, Crime and violence, Persecution by the police and lack of justice, Civil conflict and war, Macro policy shocks and stresses, Social vulnerability, Natural and human-made disasters, Health, illness and death. Insecurities and mishaps are an integral and pervasive part of the ill-being of the urban dwellers, threatening them and making them anxious, fearful and miserable. As a result of the unprecedented level of insecurity in Nigeria due to gang-related violence, this study examined violence-related crimes (armed robbery, the ‘area boys' phenomenon and communal/street clashes) and security situation and coping measures in Suleja urban town.Field survey was carried out with 2000 structured questionnaires as the sample size. A national average household size of 6 people was used based on the number of household in Suleja is 41,258. 5% sample size of the total number of households was taken to produce 2000 questionnaires. This questionnaire was administered systematic random sampling techniques. Also, records of crime data were obtain from Suleja divisional police station from 2001 – 2008 for analysis. The surveyed result shows that (14%) of the respondents in Suleja have been victim of crime and violence while 86%of respondents claimed that they have never been victim of any crime and violence.However,44% of the crime cases are armed robbery and burglary while 11% are other cases. Research findings also shown that 65% of victim of crime had no rescue, 19% were rescue by the vigilante groups, 15% of the victim were rescued by Neighbours while 1% of the respondents rescued by police intervention. In view of the above, it is recommended that job should be created and infrastructural provision strengthen. Government should also put crime prevention on its top priority list and allocate sufficient funds to cover increased welfare packages and acquisition of highly sophisticated modern security gadgets to aid surveillance and monitoring of criminals.

The present comparative study tries to identify individual-level factors most likely to influence perceptions of safety in two Baltic States that according to recent Eurostat data continue to have the highest rates of lethal violence in the European Union. The analysis is conducted on representative samples of residents in Estonia (N=2380) and Lithuania (N=2109) and uses recent data from the European Social Survey (Round 6/2012). Empirical tests of three theoretical approaches frequently used in fear-of-crime research (i.e., the crime-experience perspective, the vulnerability perspective, and the integrative model of fear of crime) show support for these perspectives in various degrees. Although inter-country differences do exist in terms of prior victimization, perceived safety, and the effect of fear-of-crime correlates, results of the overall sample indicate that residents who feel unsafe in their neighborhoods are more likely to be persons who directly or indirectly experienced victimization, persons who might perceive themselves as being unable to respond properly when facing potential criminals (e.g., females, persons with disabilities, people who live alone, economically-disadvantaged individuals, and ethnic minorities), and residents of large urban areas, where crime is more likely to occur. Conversely, in both countries, persons who are part of social networks and have higher levels of interpersonal trust are also more likely to feel safe in their local areas.

The following study analyzes the concept of sense of community of a group of people living in a shanty town in a district in the eastern outskirts of Lima, characterized by processes of community violence. With this in mind, a mixed methodology and a concurrent design were chosen, applying the Scale of Sense of Community, SCI-2, a question to measure the perceived level of danger through a Likert scale, and five individual interviews with the population. The results show that the higher the level of danger perceived in the zone, the lower the sense of community is. Likewise, in this group of people their sense of community is based above all on an emotional shared connection and on a strong feeling of membership. On the contrary, the difficulty to satisfy their collective needs through organization and the weak relationship that exists between the population and its leaders, decrease and deteriorate the sense of community in this group.