EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Neighbourhood security and urban change: risk, resilience and recovery

Neighbourhood security and urban change: risk, resilience and recovery – UK

Introduction

A report which looks at the impact of security and insecurity on the ways urban neighbourhoods change, and analyses the factors which create security and insecurity.

Description

This research develops an analytic framework for understanding the different ways in which the drivers of neighbourhood security and insecurity impact on urban neighbourhood change trajectories. It analyses the ways crime, disorder, fear of crime and social control impact on neighbourhood security, thereby influencing how places and the people in them change over time. It introduces the concepts of risk, resilience and recovery (Three Rs of urban change) to better understand the processes.

Background information

The research is aimed at those working in neighbourhood policing, crime and disorder reduction and community safety partnerships, and neighbourhood management. It is in response to a perception that tackling neighbourhood insecurity is one of the most pressing tasks for public policy in the UK. Data analysed in the study was originally collected as part of the National Reassurance Policing Programme (NRPP) which was a trial in sixteen areas across England of a new policing approach designed to improve levels of public security and increase trust and confidence in the police.

Methodology

The study is based on the analysis of data collected in four of the sixteen areas in the National Reassurance Policing Programme. The sites were selected because they were different in terms of their socio-economic composition and because their crime and disorder profiles differed. A framework is developed to help other areas understand the issues and work out the best approach to tackling them.

Conclusions

Interventions to deal with crime and disorder at neighbourhood level can be divided into three groups:

those targeted at particular risk factors – the conditions that increase the likelihood of an area decaying and declining
those engaged in resilience building, enabling some places to withstand and mitigate the risks and threats they are exposed to
those designed to trigger wider recovery processes, enhancing security and contributing to a material improvement in a neighbourhood’s situation.

The research highlights two conclusions:

areas with low levels of resilience are particularly at risk of decline
a recovery process is most likely to start up when several key features are present in an area, such as adequate resilience, behavioural and environmental control signals, connections between sources of formal and informal control, and agents of social change.

Contact info

Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Phone: +44 1904 629241
info@jrf.org.uk

Publication date

01/11/2006

Researcher

Martin Innes and Vanessa Jones

Article info
ISBN: 1859355315

Links

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Neighbourhood security and urban change: risk, resilience and recovery (PDF, Eng, 233 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Security & crime prevention

Keywords

Sense of insecurity