Insecurity and production of space: the paradox of situational crime prevention

Abstract

The increase in violence in Latin America has led public institutions to promote citizen participation in the management of insecurity. From the crime prevention approach, subjects and communities mobilize practices in search of protection in their neighborhood environments. An aspect little analyzed by the literature refers to how these practices produce space and what their scope is in cities with high levels of violence. Through a qualitative study based on a case study in 2019, we analyzed, in a situated and ethnographic way, the physical, social, and symbolic production of public space in the Kennedy neighborhood in the city of Tegucigalpa. The data reveal, on the one hand, that insecurity is not only linked to concern about crime and that, on the other hand, but fear of crime has also increased the wall, social isolation, and vigilantism. Paradoxically, phenomena reinforce the factors that facilitate the occurrence of crime and the fear of it. The results show the need to critically reflect on the scope of situational prevention in the Latin American city, while it forces us to rethink the relationship between insecurity/crime / urban planning.