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Risky Reports: Crime Risk Assessments and Spatial Governance

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Abstract

The identification, assessment, and minimization of crime risk has permeated practices that extend well beyond traditional criminal justice responses. This article analyses crime risk assessment reports and the guidelines and processes through which they are produced for large-scale commercial and residential developments and redevelopments, taking New South Wales Australia as a case study. The article suggests that although the crime risk assessment guidelines and reports deploy a language of risk, there is a messiness and inconsistency to the crime risk assessment process that raises significant questions its normative utility. The article concludes that the language and promise of risk minimisation can silence or ‘black box’ what appear to be coherent regulatory process making them little more than symbolic gestures.

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Notes

  1. Eg. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2004), Scottish Executive Planning Department (2006), New Zealand Ministry of Justice (2005), Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (2005), South Australian Department of Transport and Urban (2004), Western Australian Planning Commission (2006), Queensland Government (2007).

  2. The conditions of the Act will need to be addressed, as will relevant requirements of State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs), Regional Environmental Policies (REPs), Local Environmental Policies (LEPs) and Development Control Plans (DCPs).

  3. See Foucault (1991) for the original formulation of Governmentality, and Foucault (1980) for a discussion of spatial governance.

  4. The later concept presumably echoes the idea of governance as the conduct of conduct (Rose 1996).

  5. A Major Project has been defined by the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure as: a state significant development, state significant infrastructure, a transitional major projects, a development assessed under Part 4 EP&A Act (including advertising signage and developments in the ski resort areas of the Snowy Mountains), or a modifications to approvals for any of the above (NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure 2013).

  6. Such reports included inter alia; detailed and relevant demographic and crime data analysis; site visit information; findings from key stakeholder consultation; clear analysis of architectural plans and clearly linked observations (i.e. reference to specific plans); clarity regarding when the crime risk assessment was conducted in overall development process; recommended changes or issues requiring attention; clear reference to relevant design guidelines and planning instruments.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Professor Pat O’Malley and Associate Professor Thomas Crofts for comments and feedback on drafts of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sydney Institute of Criminology, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Murray Lee, Garner Clancey & Daren Fisher

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  1. Murray Lee
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Correspondence to Murray Lee.

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Lee, M., Clancey, G. & Fisher, D. Risky Reports: Crime Risk Assessments and Spatial Governance. Crit Crim 22, 257–272 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-013-9215-2

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