Space and crime in Dutch built environments: Macro and micro scale spatial conditions for residential burglaries and thefts from cars

Abstract

At this moment, more knowledge is available on the physical characteristics of the built environment and their relationship to criminal opportunity rather than the spatial characteristics of potential targets and the public and private space between them. To improve this situation, a research project was started in the Dutch cities Gouda and Alkmaar that aimed to address several spatial characteristics of the built environment, to develop a method to quantify these characteristics and to relate them to the geographic distribution of residential burglaries and thefts from carsi. The predominant task consisted in identifying the spatial conditions on various scale levels - in terms of the street net’s configuration - and the relationship between private and public space favouring burglaries and theft from cars. Furthermore, statistical analysis was used to study the relationship between crime risk and spatial configuration on various scale levels.