Environmental Criminology, Design, and Victimization

This chapter outlines how theories of environmental criminology can inform our understanding of maritime piracy and assesses empirically how the incidence of maritime piracy is influenced by opportunities created by a maritime setting. The chapter is organized into three sections. The first section after the introduction discusses different periods of piracy, spanning ancient times, the Middle Ages, and up to present day. While the factors contributing to piracy in each age vary, there is a common explanation for how piracy has been quashed: establishing effective place management in the maritime realm. The second section focuses on some key constructs in environmental criminology and illustrates how they operate in a maritime setting. The concluding section deals with patterns that have been observed in maritime piracy in recent times.

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How Do We Get to Causal Clarity on Physical Environment-Crime Dynamics?

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190279707.013.2 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Ralph B. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Crime Prevention ◽

Physical Environment ◽

Final Section ◽

Space Syntax ◽

Environmental Design ◽

Environmental Criminology ◽

Future Research ◽

Defensible Space ◽

Deep Sense

This chapter discusses research and theorizing about the crime impacts of the physical environment, relating it to past reviews of scholarship in this area, and highlighting the crucial question of causality. It introduces key stumbling blocks in community criminology that must be addressed before scholarship can advance on the crucial causality question. Environmental criminology in a deep sense represents a field within a broader field of community criminology. The chapter underscores just a few of the most important recent works in four select areas within the physical environment-crime scholarship: space syntax, facilities and land use, accessibility/permeability, and crime prevention through environmental design/defensible space. The final section sketches one possible avenue for future research which can address these concerns.

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