Urban Violence and Contemporary Defensive Cities

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Violent crime has been increasing at an alarming pace in large U.S. metropolitan areas. This article, condensed from a chapter published by the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, explores possibilities that design and form of the urban environment may control, prevent, or invite violence. It is now a hard fact of American life that violence has become a cause of change in the urban environment. Unquestionably, our major cities are now being fortified, and historical precedents lead to the conclusion that contemporary defensive cities may become a reality in America, however foreboding and economically and socially destructive their consequences would be. Although defensive use of the urban environment can control the types and locations of crime, it will not attack the causes of crime, and may add to them. It is unclear whether improvements in the urban physical environment can influence positive behavior and reduce the overall volume of crime.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: