Conflicting Forces: Changing the Dynamics of Crime and Community on a 'Problem' Estate

• NCJ Number: 140304
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 32 Issue: 4 Dated: special issue (Autumn 1992) Pages: 488-504
• Author(s): T Hope; J Foster
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 17 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study focused on the dynamics of crime in "problem" council (public) housing estates, focusing in particular on an estate, comprised of 1,083 apartments, which was part of a larger public housing development on the periphery of a city in the north of England.

Abstract

Three theories have been used to explain or remedy the deterioration of council housing estates: the role of estate design in fostering defensive or territorial behavior among residents, the decentralization of housing services and management to create a partnership between landlord and tenants, and the association between social disadvantage and social problems in residential communities. The council estate culture seems to embody two conflicting values -- informal social control and opportunities for criminality -- which shape behavior and attitudes toward offending. The data used in this research was collected through observations and interviews with council estate residents and two victimization surveys, one conducted in 1987 before the commencement of the crime prevention Priority Estates Project (PEP) and one conducted three years later. During the study period, changes occurred on the estate in terms of environmental design, management quality, and social mix. The impact of these changes on differential tenant allocation, changes in social control and disorder, estate culture, and the intensification of control and criminality were examined. The findings showed that environmental design modifications and management improvements interacted with changes in tenant turnover and allocation to the estate, with the result that the internal estate culture was altered, producing an intensification of both social control and criminality. The environmental changes managed to divert new tenants to a particular part of the estate and to generate a measure of informal social control which provided security to a significant proportion of tenants, yet the result was to concentrate crime and criminality in a particular part of the estate which increased its intensity in that location among the new, mostly youthful residents. 4 tables, 14 notes, and 46 references