Insecurities in European Cities

Research project of the 5th Framework Program

The research project entitled "Insecurities in European Cities" originated in Hamburg and was the brainchild of Professor Klaus Sessar, a well known German criminologist. Professor Sessar (now retired) was for many years head of the Chair for Criminology at the University of Hamburg. Closer cooperation between Prof. Sessar and myself started eight years ago, in May of 1996, when we met during a conference in Estonia. Since that time we have taken part together in other conferences.

It was in the year 1999 that he started to think about organizing a larger research project which would be international in character, involving research centers from Western and EasternEurope. For many years he was deeply interested in the phenomenon of fear of crime, its causes and its consequences. In his opinion it is one of the crucial issues for contemporary criminology and crime control policy. It is fear of crime which has a negative influence on the quality of life in contemporary societies. It is also fear of crime which results in the repressive and punitive tendencies in contemporary criminal law to which many criminologists are opposed and see them as senseless and destructive. For many criminologists the main remedy against both tendencies isthe idea ofcommunity crime prevention. This is the idea that crime may and should be primarily prevented rather than just repressed using punitive measures. When ProfessorSessar asked me whether I would be interested in participating in a research project devoted to these issues, I did not hesitate in answering yes. I proposed that Dr Janina Czapska from the Department of Sociology of Law of the Jagiellonian University should also participate as a member of the Polish team as shehad been involved in research on crime prevention issues for many years.

The research team was put together in 1999. Initially, the most important problem was finding a proper source of funding for our project which was potentially quite expensive. It was then that Professor Sessar came up with the idea of applying for funds from the European Commission. I think that this experience of cooperation between scholars coming from different countries, different research cultures and schools proved to be quite successful. After all, as Prof. Sessar remarked during our last meeting in Hamburg, we managed not only to stay together for the entire period (which is not always the case in such projects) but we also managed to collect an enormous amount of results, data, and materials. The experience was of enormous value to all of us. Finally, although in most cases we knew each other prior to starting our project we became friends.

The most important assumption underlying our project constituted the thesis that fear of crime and feelings of insecurity result not only from the phenomenon of crime and an objective lack of security but also primarily from a broader pattern of changes in the contemporary world. These data constituted a necessary starting point for comparing all five cities.The second and most important step was a population survey.

The questionnaire was drafted primarily in Hamburg, reworked at one of our meetings and then translated into local languages. Surveys were conducted in each city in the summer and autumn of 2002. These involved samples of about 1000 respondents (500 in each district). They were conducted by public opinion research institutions chosen as the project's subcontractors. At least one more meeting is planned (in Vienna in April of 2005) and there are plans for a book to be published (in German). So far it is possible to provide some more detailed information on the results in Kraków. It is most interesting that this city proved to be in many respects a special case amongst the involved cities. First of all it is necessary to underline that levels of fear and insecurity in Kraków are especially high, much higher than elsewhere. This was true of all the kinds of anxieties we inquired into: global (wars, terrorism, nuclear energy, unemployment, environmental destruction, epidemics etc.) as well as problems at city and district level (crime, drug and alcohol related problems, hooliganism, incivility, insufficient social services, poor infrastructure, inefficient police, corruption etc.). We all are much puzzled by this result, as objectively many of these problems are more acute in Amsterdam, Hamburg or Budapest than in Kraków. Moreover, it is quite certain that this has nothing to do with the real crime rate in Kraków. The "victimization" part of our survey has shown that the prevalence of victimization in Kraków is quite comparable with that of other cities and Kraków does not constitute an especially dangerous city in objective terms. This pattern can also not be attributed to post-communist transformation, as Budapest seems to be quite different in this respect. In fact it seems to be much closer with regard to feelings of insecurity and anxiety to the most easygoing of all five cities, namely Vienna.

There is also one more feature particular to Kraków. There were two features of the inhabitants of our two districts which may be pretty problematic from the point of view of community crime prevention. First, most people think that repression is the most effective tool for dealing with crime and other social problems. They think that increased police powers and stiffer penalties for offenders are the best means to reduce crime and guarantee security. Second, most people are ready to engage in certain preventive activities but only those which are simple and passive in nature (avoiding dangerous places, dangerous people, not leaving home after darkness etc.). They are much less prepared to be active in this respect, to take part in mobilizing local communities to do something about their problems, crime included. This passivity and expectation that someone else should do the job, may constitute the main obstacle to effective implementation of community crime prevention schemes in Kraków, schemes which have very often proved to be very effective in other cities and other societies.

Professor Krzysztof Krajewski, Ph.D.

Department of Criminology, JU