Title: City design and its relationship with tourism crimes: a behaviour analysis of the urban environment

Authors: Mervyn Jackson; Robert Inbakaran; Colin Arrowsmith; Babu George

Addresses: Discipline of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, RMIT University, P.O. Box 71, Bundoora 3083, Australia. ' Discipline of Management Studies, Faculty of Business and Government, University of Canberra, Bruce Campus, Canberra-ACT 2601, Australia. ' School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. ' CHTM, College of Business, University of Southern Mississippi, JGH 311-B, 118 College Drive, Box 5176, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406 USA

Abstract: This study explores city level design and its relationship to crime. We perform a comparative analysis between three tourist towns and three non-tourist control towns. The results found that tourist towns had a higher percentage of arterial roads to all roads (good prospect, quick escape) and that the percentage of streets with public space was four times as high (good prospect, good refuge, good escape). The implication for this is that tourist environments were designed for ready access of strangers and an increased tolerance of strangers in the community by hosts: both predictors of criminal behaviour. Future research should focus on designing out tourist crime victimisation by applying crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED).

Keywords: crime; victimisation; hot spots; refuges; escape routes; city design; cities; tourism crimes; behaviour analysis; urban environment; comparative analysis; tourist towns; arterial roads; streets; public spaces; tourist environments; ready access; strangers; tolerance; communities; hosts; predictors; criminal behaviour; CPTED; crime prevention; environmental design; Australia; Armidale; Coffs Harbour; New South Wales; Tamworth; Port MacQuarie; Colac; Lorne; Victoria; Hamilton; Portland; anthropology; tourist industry; tourists; risk; security; hospitality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTA.2011.043705

International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 2011 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.195 - 207

Published online: 31 Jan 2015 *

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