Final Report Summary - URBAN CRIMINOLOGY (Establishment of a Research and Training Centre in Urban Security and Facility Management)
This research is dedicated to pursue three overarching objectives:
First, the ERG grant shall provide Dr. Stummvoll with professional academic infrastructure at Danube University Krems to re-integrate him into a research career in his native country after his trans-national experience as a Marie Curie Research Fellow at Keele University, UK.
Second, the project has been designed to establish a new Centre for Urban Security and Facility Management in the Department of Building and Environment at Danube University Krems in Austria. The Centre shall be a multi-disciplinary knowledge hub at the interface of urban sociology, criminology, real estate- and facility management. A “Network for Urban Security” shall be formed at Danube University Krems to facilitate communication between academics and practitioners in security management and planning professions.
Third, activities in the Project “Urban Criminology” comprise Research Activities (WP1, WP2, WP3) and the development of Training & Education on national and European level (WP 4 and WP5).
A Social Area Analyses will help understand the conditions for public order, Crime Hot Spot Analysis will study opportunities for crime in urban space, and studies on private policing in shopping centres will help understand new cultures of control in mass private properties. Crowd monitoring will be used as an instrument to study correlations between crowding and security. Together these research fields will reinforce an innovative approach to crime prevention that looks beyond punitive strategies and blind trust in security technology, but takes into account conditions in the built environment to avoid opportunities for crime, while at the same time designing attractive places in urban structures. Insights from these core fields of research will provide the basis for a certified Masters Programme that will be developed in an international consortium for practitioners and stakeholders who study at the University for Continuous Education Krems.
Dr. Günter Stummvoll was integrated as a full-time researcher in the Centre for Facility Management and Security as part of the Department of Building and Environment at Danube University Krems. He was entrusted additional duties as “science administrator” for the Department.
The first Work Package, a criminological social area analysis, has been accomplished and completed as part of the European Research project “Planning Urban Security”1 under the General Programme “Security and Protection of Liberties” in the 7th Framework Programme. The work included tasks such as the study of local crime statistics, analysis of expert interviews on public order management, and the complete administration and analysis of results of a public survey on the feeling of insecurity in the neighbourhood. National workshops and conferences were organised to discuss the topic with experts and the general public, and several project meetings were held in the countries of all project partners.
The topic “Urban Criminology” has been integrated on a regular basis in the curriculum of the following academic training courses on Masters-level at Danube University Krems: “Security and Safety Management”, “Facility Management”, “Daylight Architecture”, “Future Building Solutions – Urban Sustainability” and “Information-Security-Management”. Dr. Günter Stummvoll has also given lectures at the Annual Security Conference at Danube University Krems in 2010 and 2011, and at the annual conference “Forum Building Science” of the Department for Building and Environment.
First, the ERG grant shall provide Dr. Stummvoll with professional academic infrastructure at Danube University Krems to re-integrate him into a research career in his native country after his trans-national experience as a Marie Curie Research Fellow at Keele University, UK.
Second, the project has been designed to establish a new Centre for Urban Security and Facility Management in the Department of Building and Environment at Danube University Krems in Austria. The Centre shall be a multi-disciplinary knowledge hub at the interface of urban sociology, criminology, real estate- and facility management. A “Network for Urban Security” shall be formed at Danube University Krems to facilitate communication between academics and practitioners in security management and planning professions.
Third, activities in the Project “Urban Criminology” comprise Research Activities (WP1, WP2, WP3) and the development of Training & Education on national and European level (WP 4 and WP5).
A Social Area Analyses will help understand the conditions for public order, Crime Hot Spot Analysis will study opportunities for crime in urban space, and studies on private policing in shopping centres will help understand new cultures of control in mass private properties. Crowd monitoring will be used as an instrument to study correlations between crowding and security. Together these research fields will reinforce an innovative approach to crime prevention that looks beyond punitive strategies and blind trust in security technology, but takes into account conditions in the built environment to avoid opportunities for crime, while at the same time designing attractive places in urban structures. Insights from these core fields of research will provide the basis for a certified Masters Programme that will be developed in an international consortium for practitioners and stakeholders who study at the University for Continuous Education Krems.
Dr. Günter Stummvoll was integrated as a full-time researcher in the Centre for Facility Management and Security as part of the Department of Building and Environment at Danube University Krems. He was entrusted additional duties as “science administrator” for the Department.
The first Work Package, a criminological social area analysis, has been accomplished and completed as part of the European Research project “Planning Urban Security”1 under the General Programme “Security and Protection of Liberties” in the 7th Framework Programme. The work included tasks such as the study of local crime statistics, analysis of expert interviews on public order management, and the complete administration and analysis of results of a public survey on the feeling of insecurity in the neighbourhood. National workshops and conferences were organised to discuss the topic with experts and the general public, and several project meetings were held in the countries of all project partners.
The topic “Urban Criminology” has been integrated on a regular basis in the curriculum of the following academic training courses on Masters-level at Danube University Krems: “Security and Safety Management”, “Facility Management”, “Daylight Architecture”, “Future Building Solutions – Urban Sustainability” and “Information-Security-Management”. Dr. Günter Stummvoll has also given lectures at the Annual Security Conference at Danube University Krems in 2010 and 2011, and at the annual conference “Forum Building Science” of the Department for Building and Environment.
