ATS3942 · Crime and the city

Overview

This course examines the concentration of crime in cities and urban communities and places the role of context at the centre of inquiry. It focusses on how local environments, geography, physical locations and residents’ perceptions and actions influence and shape crime. You will learn how cities differ from rural or regional environments in their crime rates and will critically engage with why crime and other social problems concentrate in cities and neighbourhoods, not only in Australia, but globally. The course is broken down into four modules: What is a city and how do cities differ?; How and where do social problems concentrate?; What are the key theories and perspectives that explain the concentration of crime; and How do prevent crime in cities and communities? Seminars, in class activities, field trips and labs will highlight how crime and responses to crime are shaped by spatial inequality, ethnic/racial segregation and diversity, and competing interests in access and use of public spaces

Offerings

The Handbook publishes no offerings for this unit.

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. analyse and describe the relationship between different places, spaces and crime;
2. identify and compare theories and methodological approaches to understanding the spatial concentration of crime at different levels of spatial granularity;
3. utilise spatial analytic techniques such as ARC GIS and hotspot mapping in the analysis of spatial concentration of crime;
4. compare the spatial concentration of crime in the Australian context with that of other countries;
5. assess the causal relationships between crime, inequality, segregation and the regulation of public space;
6. work collegially in a small team environment.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.