About the Project
(I) Scientific Excellence
Crime hot spots invariably include areas with high concentration of Night-Time Economy (NTE) venues which may act as crime attractors. Violence and alcohol-related crimes disproportionately occur within NTE contexts and are traditionally considered to be ‘irrational’ offences impervious to situational cues. Whilst there is adequate knowledge on designing out acquisitive crimes within residential, retail, and transportation settings, the situational crime prevention within the NTE has not been investigated. This project draws on a growing body of research proposing that the management and design of the immediate environment can in fact dictate opportunities for both the occurrence, and escalation, of crimes.
(II) Research aims and/or research hypothesis, set within national/international context
The project investigates the impact of the social and physical setting on alcohol related crimes within the NTE and addresses the following research questions:
• Can situational cues in the immediate physical environment (e.g. venue layout, physical security measures, venue maintenance/décor, venue accessibility) be linked to venue-level crime rates/patterns?
• Can situational cues in the immediate social environment (e.g. patron socio-demographic composition, venue entertainment) be linked to venue-level crime rates/patterns?
• Can the principles of Secure By Design (SBD) be applied to the prevention of crimes in public NTE venues?
• Can NTE venues and their immediate surroundings be redesigned to be crime-proof?
It documents design features of NTE venues to produce a valuable combined data set of new and existing sources which will be made publicly available to inform future research.
(III) Methodology, Research Design and Planning, highlighting Novelty, Ambition and Innovations
To determine whether and how venue design and layout - including immediate surroundings, street network, and accessibility - act as crime attractors the project will:
(a) adapt SBD research methodology (Walking Methods and the SBD questionnaire) developed by Armitage for private housing and retail businesses, to NTE venues to collect primary data;
(b) undertake statistical three-level (location, venue, night of the week) hierarchical modelling (developed in criminology by Tseloni) of the collected primary supplemented with secondary data - the Crime Survey for England and Wales, police recorded crime, points of interest Ordinance Survey, and the Census; and
(c) employ digital planning and artificial intelligence (developed by Medjdoub) for designing out crime.
This is an ambitious, highly innovative and interdisciplinary methodology, by internationally renowned experts in the respective fields.
(IV) How does the project align to NTU institutional strategic research priorities, and (V) How does the project fit within the remit of the DTA
It is inter-disciplinary (criminology, digital architecture, urban planning, social policy) and inter-sectional across academia (both international and DTA consortium), charity, and local government. It translates knowledge with international reach into practical crime prevention, enhancing the wellbeing, safety and security of citizens.
Violence, which costs the UK economy £13 billion annually, and alcohol-related crime hot spots invariably include areas with high concentration of Night-Time Economy (NTE) venues. The impact of the physical environment on such crimes consist a large gap in knowledge. As a result, there is no evidence base (or policies) on environmental interventions designing out opportunities from NTE settings. However good management and design of the NTE venues and their immediate environment in principle can reduce opportunities for crime. The proposed PhD will draw on the interdisciplinarity of a supervisory team of internal and external academic experts (criminology, digital architecture, urban planning, and social policy) and their sustained collaboration with practitioners in crime prevention and alcohol-related harm reduction to design-out crime from NTE venues and their immediate surroundings. To this end, it will use highly innovative methodology to collect primary data and, merged with existing secondary data, statistically analyse them, and digitally design crime-proof NTE venues. The findings, in addition to creating new knowledge across multiple disciplines, will influence NTE venues’ planning and licensing and Secure By Design guidance and standards for local government, national (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), and international policies.
Applications
Applicants must apply using the online form on the University Alliance website at https://unialliance.ac.uk/dta/cofund/how-to-apply/. Full details of the programme, eligibility details and a list of available research projects can be seen at https://unialliance.ac.uk/dta/cofund/
The final deadline for application is Monday 8 October 2018. There will be another opportunity to apply for DTA3 projects in the spring of 2019. The list of available projects is likely to change for the second intake.