The aim of the current study is to estimate whether spatial data on place features from OpenStreetMap (OSM) produce results similar to those when employing register data to predict future violent crime in public across three Swedish cities of varying sizes. Using violent crime in public as an outcome, four models for each city are produced using a Risk Terrain Modeling approach. One using spatial data on place features from register data and one from OSM, one model with prior violent crime excluded and one with prior crime included. The results show that several place features are significantly associated with violent crime in public independent of using register or OSM data as input. While models using register data seem to produce more accurate and efficient predictions than OSM data for the two smaller cities, the difference for the largest city is negligible indicating that the models provide similar results. As such, OSM place feature data may be of value when predicting the spatial distribution of future violent crime in public and provide results similar to those when using register data, at least when employed in larger compared to smaller cities. Possibilities, limitations, and avenues for future research when using OSM data in place-based criminological research are discussed.

Objectives: To explore the extent to which unsafe locations are concentrated to micro-places within the city of Malmö, Sweden, and whether there is a temporal stability in these micro-places over time.

Methods: Information on unsafe locations is obtained from an open-ended item across three waves of a random sample community survey. Reported unsafe locations are geocoded as polygon, polyline, and point features and merged with a 200 by 200-m grid-cell network using both unadjusted and weighted counts.

Results: The results suggest that unsafe locations are concentrated to a small share of grid-cells using different metrics. There are also signs of spatial clustering and a temporal stability of unsafe locations over time.

Conclusions: As unsafe locations are concentrated to a small share of micro-places the results have important implications for both theory and practice. However, further research exploring unsafety and fear of crime at micro-places is highly warranted.

Drawing on a lifestyle-routine activity framework, this study explores associations between lifestyle/routine activities and worry about personal victimisation across months, days and moments. A bespoke smartphone application employing both traditional questionnaires and an Experience Sampling Method design was used by a convenience sample of students who responded to surveys regarding worry about victimisation. Lifestyle/routine activity measures showed varying associations with worry. The most consistent finding was that spending time with friends in the city-centre was significantly and negatively associated with worry across months and moments, but just failed to reach the level of significance for daily worry. Overall, the somewhat varying results indicate that worry cannot be assumed to be equally associated with lifestyle/routine activities across months, days and moments. These findings also imply more generally that research on worry about victimisation and other similar phenomena needs to consider how the outcome is measured in terms of reference periods and unit of analysis. Future research using more representative samples is needed to confirm the findings from this exploratory study.

Situational data have become more frequently used in research on offending and victimization. However, one outcome that has received less attention is fear of crime. The current study uses situational data collected through a smartphone application (STUNDA) to examine fear of crime as it is experienced in daily life among a sample of university students. Roughly 1200 situations reported by 129 students were analysed using generalized estimating equations. The results indicate that experiential fear of crime, in the form of worrying about victimization, is related to features of the immediate settings. More specifically, the odds ratio for experiencing fear of crime is significantly higher in places away from home and after dark, whereas social activities are associated with a significantly lower odds ratio, net of individual-level controls (gender, age, previous victimization and fear propensity). Yet, fear propensity, measured here using items that refer to an individual’s general worry about victimization, has an independent significant effect on fear of crime. As a result of the study’s convenience sample, the generalizability of the findings is limited, but a more general theoretical conclusion can nonetheless be drawn; features of settings and individual characteristics are both of importance. Further, the use of experience methods via a smartphone application provided detailed and unique situational data, which suggests that future research should further employ these methods to study situational phenomena such as fear of crime.

This study adds to knowledge on place-based fear of crime. First, by proposing a method to coordinate and code unsafe locations from an open-ended question in a random sample survey among residents of Uppsala, Sweden. The method is performed through an automated script in R with manual work steps. Second, by identifying types of functional locations, e.g. traffic centres, city parks, green spaces etc., reported by residents as unsafe. Third, by examining whether these unsafe locations spatially cluster. Fourth, by examining whether unsafe locations or clusters of unsafe locations also tend to overlap with hotspots of crime. Fifth, by examining to what extent living conditions are related to the occurrence of unsafe locations and their potential spatial clustering.

Denna rapport är den fjärde ur en serie rapporter som på olika sätt beskrivit Sofielundsområdena med fokus på brottslighet och otrygghet. Syftet med föreliggande rapport är att undersöka utvecklingen av bland annat brottslighet och otrygghet i Sofielundsområdena sedan fastighetsägarorganisationen BID Sofielund initierades. Ambitionen är att rapporten ska bidra med kunskap och lärdomar om BID-inspirerade samarbeten och vilka potentiella effekter ett sådant samarbete kan ha på utvecklingen av bland annat brott och otrygghet i lokalområdet.

Much previous research on the fear of crime has focused on why some individuals, with certain characteristics, experience more or less fear of crime than others. However, there is also a growing body of research examining the role that the neighbourhood context in which individuals reside plays in shaping such feelings and perceptions. At the same time, less research has been directed at understanding why certain small-scale micro-places evoke feelings of unsafety and fear of crime.

The aim of this dissertation is to contribute to improving the current state ofthe research focused on place, the fear of crime, and related methodological issues. The dissertation includes four original empirical research papers. Study I is based on a case study evaluating the impact of camera surveillance and examines what role the operationalization of place may play for the results and interpretation of a given study.

The findings show that different operationalizations may indeed produce different results, and that the choice of operationalization must be carefully considered in the context of study design. Study II uses responses to an open-ended survey question from three waves of the Malmö Community Survey (2012, 2015, 2018) to chart the spatial concentration and temporal stability of unsafe locations.

The findings show that locations perceived as unsafe by city inhabitants are concentrated to a very small proportion of the urban space, and that there is a temporal stability in unsafe locations over time. Study III further explores unsafe locations by examining the spatial risk factors associated with these unsafe locations and the role played by neighbourhood collective efficacy and disorder. The results show that a number of spatial risk factors are correlated with the outcome, suggesting that the physical environment has a role to play in shaping people’s perceptions of unsafety at a given location. The findings also show that there are major between neighbourhood variations in unsafe locations, but that neighbourhood collective efficacy and disorder play only a limited role in the explanation of this variance. The final paper, Study IV, is a methodological study focused on the feasibility of using an alternative approach to studying fear of crime, as a momentary event, and uses an experience research framework implemented using a smart phone application (STUNDA). The general conclusion is that it is feasible to conduct research on the fear of crime using a smartphone application, but that emerging methods may also involve new methodological issues and challenges.

The four studies have both methodological and theoretical implications, suggesting that the way place is defined and operationalized may have important impacts on the results and interpretations of research studies. In addition, the findings suggest that there is more to be learned about the fear of crime as a context-specific experience that is dependent on the immediate environment, and that alternative methodological approaches focused on surveying momentary experiences of fear of crime using smartphone applications seem to be feasible. A place-based approach to the fear of crime, supported by alternative measures and methods, may also be important in developing a broader understanding of how perceptions of fear of crime and unsafety are shaped. Such an understanding may in turn assist policymakers and practitioners to design knowledge-based interventions to reduce fear of crime and feelings of unsafety.

Objectives: To examine the extent to which different operationalizations of target, displacement, and comparison sites affect the interpretation of a CCTV impact evaluation. Methods: Different operationalizations are used to examine change in property and violent crime before and after CCTV was introduced in a residential neighbourhood in Malmö, Sweden, using paired t tests, odds ratio effect sizes and weighted displacement quotients. Results: Despite most results being non-significant as a result of low statistical power, different operationalizations appear to produce varying results. This issue is most prominent for target sites and property crime while it is less so for catchment and comparison sites, and violent crime outcomes. Conclusion: Valid operationalizations of research areas are highly important for CCTV impact evaluations and may affect the study outcome. Future research with access to larger data sets is encouraged to elaborate on these findings and further analyse the impact of measurement choices on experimental outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have examined the effect of community interventions on youth alcohol consumption, and the results have often been mixed. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a community intervention known as the Öckerö Method on adolescent alcohol consumption and perceived parental attitudes towards adolescent drinking.

METHOD: The study is based on a quasi-experimental design, using matched controls. Self-report studies were conducted among adolescents in grades 7-9 of compulsory education in four control and four intervention communities in the south of Sweden in 2016-2018. Baseline measures were collected in autumn 2016 before the intervention was implemented in the intervention communities. Outcomes were the adolescents' alcohol consumption, past-year drunkenness, past-month drunkenness and perceived parental attitudes towards alcohol.

RESULTS: Estimating Difference-in-Difference models using Linear Probability Models, we found no empirical evidence that the intervention has any effect on adolescents' drinking habits, or on their perceptions of their parents' attitudes towards adolescent drinking.

CONCLUSION: This is the first evaluation of this method, and we found no evidence that the intervention had any effect on the level of either young people's alcohol consumption or their past-year or past-month drunkenness, nor on their parents' perceived attitudes toward adolescent drinking. A further improvement would be to employ a follow-up period that is longer than the three-year period employed in this study.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN registry: Study ID: 51635778 , 31th March 2021 (Retrospectively registered).