by Christine Hearn
Photograpy by Mark Mushet

We often seem preoccupied with criminal activity. Whether actual crime numbers are up or down, many of us feel increasingly edgy and unsafe in our urban environment.

What causes crime? And what can we do to prevent it?

Traditionally the focus has been on the individual and the forces that shaped him or her. Does the person commit the crime because of an upbringing in a dysfunctional family? Because of genetics? Because of a head injury? Because of poverty and deprivation? The reasons are varied, and much time and many resources are spent trying to eradicate the perceived roots of the problem.

In addition to looking at the individual’s background, SFU is in the vanguard of another focus on crime – one that looks at the physical environment that encourages criminal activity or one that tries to make that environment safer.

“Most of criminology has been focused on the ‘why’,” says Paul Brantingham, co-director of the Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies (ICURS) Laboratory. “The why is extremely important, but because it is hard to change human behaviour in any permanent way, we look at how we can intervene in potential crime situations to remove the opportunity.

“If we, as a society, make it easy for some people to step over the line once, then it becomes easier the next time and the next time,” he adds. “We want to reduce the likelihood of these people getting into trouble the first time.”

Paul is one half of a couple, the other half being his wife, Patricia Brantingham, Director of ICURS. Both are criminologists and pioneers in analyzing crime patterns and making recommendations to governments on how to design neighbourhoods that are less attractive to crime and criminals. They both also research innovative ways of dealing with crime and the fear of crime.

Patricia started out as a mathematician and then became an urban planner. Paul was studying to be a lawyer when he became interested in the efficient use of the criminal justice system.

While doing graduate work at Cambridge, Paul’s interest in statistics increased and he discovered that crime was “clumpy” in terms of time and space. At the same time Patricia was moving into urban planning and they both became more interested in looking at patterns of criminal events.

Their careers lead them to Florida State University where they worked with C. Ray Jeffery, whose book Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design had been published in 1971.

“We started to look at the patterns,” explains Patricia. “Why do people go to certain bars where there are always fights? We found that the patterns are similar to why people go to a particular coffee shop.

“We started to look at where people commit burglaries in relation to where they work and live. We found out they do it close to home or work or familiar restaurants and bars, but not too close – not right there.”

Their research led the Brantinghams to the next step, looking at ways to modify the physical environment to deter crime. “Can we design areas to make them unattractive to crime?” asks Patricia. “Density leads to higher attractiveness, but it also leads to more crime. What can we do to reduce crime while maintaining a high quality of urban living? We need to have balance. If you go too far in one direction you lose the pleasures of urban living; if you go too far in the other direction you lose safety.”

The Brantinghams, who came to SFU in 1977, now hold two unique RCMP-funded university research chairs. Hers is in computational criminology; his is in crime analysis. Both are essential for crime reduction.

It’s the first time the RCMP has supported university research chairs, providing $4 million over five years for the two

professors, four visiting faculty, and some research assistants. In addition, ICURS will have access to all “E” division (British Columbia) RCMP data as well as Vancouver Police

Department data.

The collaboration between the RCMP and the Brantinghams was a result of the annual Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis Symposium in 2004. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Gary Bass from “E” division was struck by the number of criminologists from all over the world who complained of the inability to get timely and specific crime data from the police. He was also intrigued by the research being done by the Brantinghams and their SFU colleagues at ICURS.

ICURS was established by the Brantinghams in the early 1990s. The interdisciplinary centre brings together people from a wide range of disciplines to study city issues. Its focus is urban crime and how factors such as city design, layout of road networks, rapid transit stations, and shopping mall hours affect the location, frequency, and severity of crime.

“One of the strengths of SFU is its cross-faculty, thematic approach,” says Patricia. “Criminology in particular has faculty from many areas.

The Brantinghams are working with the university’s Interdisciplinary Research in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences (IRMACS) Centre and with the school of computing science to build a crime information warehouse that makes it possible to use the latest in mathematical and computer science to answer questions and to identify crime patterns. “We lay that information over a map of the city to give [a picture of] the fabric of the city and how it looks in time and space,” says Patricia. “SFU is the first place to do that.”

New, more powerful computers have made the Brantinghams’ work much easier. New software enables them to build models of cities with potential target choices. As virtual people go about their business travelling the city, and as they pass by opportunities for crime, the system builds up criminal events. The Brantinghams can then test how various theories predict where crimes are going to happen. “It’s a criminological version of Sim City,” says Patricia.

Some of the Brantinghams’ research is now being used as a standard policy tool: governments are calling in people early enough to have an impact on design. “We have had influence in getting governments to think about spatial hot spots,” says Paul. “We look for things that facilitate crime before the problem exists, then we make sure something is done.”

But the Brantinghams are also helping police and governments deal with existing problems. They are looking at established hot spots and at what is needed to prevent situations from escalating to the next rung of crime.

The Brantinghams’ partnership with the RCMP will result in high-quality research that will help improve police ability to reduce and prevent crime. The RCMP will also use some of the information to evaluate their own programs to see what works and what doesn’t. Later this spring the opening of the new ICURS lab with its dedicated IBM supercomputer will allow for new levels of crime analysis. aq

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