Opis: | The doctoral dissertation focuses on research on the forms, causes, and responses on crime in urban local communities. For measuring safety in urban local communities the European guidelines were adopted and used in the case of Ljubljana, which represents the largest Slovenian urban area and is also considered as one of the 58 densely populated European cities. Based on the mention guidelines, the urban area of Ljubljana was placed in a broader demographic context, data on disorder and crime and their distribution were collected, based on the sociological theories causes of crime were examined, residents' perceptions of sources of threat and police were measured, quality of life was measured based on the selected indicators, and formal subjects and their role in ensuring safety at the local level were identified.
In the empirical part of the doctoral dissertation, a community survey in urban areas of Ljubljana was implemented. The survey was conducted in ten urban neighbourhoods, of which five were low-risk areas, according to the police statistics of offenses against public order and peace and crime, and the other five were high-risk areas. The survey was conducted from October to December in the year 2016. The sample consisted of 1,000 adult residents of Ljubljana, who lived in the area of selected neighbourhoods. The results of the analysis showed significant differences in the characteristics of urban areas (demographic structure, social infrastructure, quality of life) and also differences in the level of victimisation (residents of low-risk areas were less frequently victims of crime). Significant differences were also observed in social processes according to the neighbourhood type. Residents' of low-risk areas reported higher level of social cohesion, less youth deviance and better attitudes toward migrants. Differences were also detected in the residents' perception, while residents' of low-risk areas perceived less disorder and crime, and also expressed better attitudes toward the police (police effectiveness, procedural justice, willingness to cooperate with the police, moral identification with police officers), than residents' of high-risk areas. We also discovered that the factors influencing the perception of sources of threats and the perception of police, differ according to the area type.
In the last part, as one of the main goals of doctoral dissertation, a model of safety in urban areas was formed, based on the findings of previous research and on the findings of previous analysis. The model of safety thus includes social processes in the community, the residents' perception of sources of threats and the residents' perception of police. We determined the impact of social processes on the perception of sources of threat’s, which further affects the perception of the police, and moreover, the perception of police affects social processes in the community. The model contains a circular dynamics of impacts, and if one of the factors changes, it does affect a change in others. As the model appropriately adapts to the data, we suggest its use in future research in both, the domestic and international level. |
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