THIS IS AN ENGLISH FRIENDLY COURSE: lessons are given in Spanish but meetings with professors, exercises and evaluation can be done in English.



This course analyses objective urban safety – and subjective, perceived safety to a lesser extent- considering that offending behaviour is influenced not only by psychological and social variables, but also by the environment where it happens and specific circumstances.

Environmental Criminology has found that crime is not randomly distributed in space and time; its spatial-temporal patters can be studied with tools such as crime mapping. Moreover, to understand the places and situations that offer opportunities for crime has allowed to develop crime prevention strategies from an environmental perspective. The course offers a basic training on these topics, helping the student to build a broad and multicausal understanding of the criminal phenomenon, and being a first contact with an increasingly relevant field within Criminology.

1.To be able to work in teams and contribute to a shared result.

2.To know the most relevant theoretical models and the foundations of Environmental Criminology.

3.To be able to identify the psychological and environmental predictors of crime and safety.

4.To be able to elaborate a technical report and to publicly defend it.

1. Introduction to Environmental Criminology and (objective and subjective) urban safety

2. Origins and development of Environmental Criminology

3. Current theoretical perspectives

4. Studying crime patterns: crime mapping, repeat victimization and geographic analysis of serial crimes

5. Crime Prevention Trough Environmental Design (CPTED)

6. Other environmental crime prevention strategies: Situational crime prevention, Design Out Crime, Policing models

Theoretical lessons are combined with practical activities for applying the theoretical contents to real life problems and to develop the trasversal competencies of the course. E-gela (the virtual classroom) will be an invaluable tool for sharing with the students the working plan and every needed material, as well as for keeping available the evaluation criteria that will help student to focus efforts for better learning results.



There are three types of assessed activities in the course:

1.Practical activities. Handwritten tasks usually carried out in teams during face to face sessions, but sometimes they are developed out of class, printed and given in a scheduled date.

2.Technical report. It will be developed in programmed sessions during the course, working with a stable team, and will presented to the class by the end of the course.

3.Final exam. The exam will be done in the official examination date for this course.

• Final Assessment System
• Tools and qualification percentages:
  • Written test to be taken (%): 50
  • Realization of Practical Work (exercises, cases or problems) (%): 20
  • Trabajo grupal (informe técnico) con defensa oral (%): 30

The weight of each activity to obtain the final grade is as follows:

Final written exam (short answers) - 50% of the final grade

Practical activities - 20% of the final grade

Technical report - 30% of the final grade



If a student presents a voluntary written renunciation to the continuous evaluation system, he/she will evaluated in a final exam that includes questions about the most important topics covered in theoretical lectures and activities similar to those carried out in the field practice, classroom practice, computer practice, workshop and seminar sessions. A student can present this renunciation letter, by emailing the professor, during the first 9 weeks of the course.



If a student would like to renounce to be evaluated, not attending the exam will be enough.



PLEASE KEEP IN MIND:

- To be able to pass the course, it is necessary to pass each activity type (practical activities, technical report and test exam), to give in at least 75% of the practical activities and to contribute to the technical report, taking part in the presentation.

- Detecting plagiarism or other kind of unethical behaviour in any activity will imply a grade of 0 points in this activity.

- Activities should be correctly written. Please use a spell checker. If a third orthographic mistake is detected, the evaluation process will end, and the grade will be the score obtained up to that point.



If we had to be confined due to sanitary reasons, the exercises, exam and value for the final calification would remain the same, but would be delivered or carried out using online tools (eGela and Blackboard collaborate).

The student will be evaluated in a final exam that includes questions about the most important topics covered in theoretical lectures and activities similar to those carried out in the field practice, classroom practice, computer practice, workshop and seminar sessions.



If a student would like to renounce to be evaluated, not attending the exam will be enough.



If we had to be confined due to sanitary reasons, the characteristics of the exam would remain the same, but it would be done using online tools (eGela)

Handbook:
Vozmediano, L. y San Juan, C. (2010). Criminología Ambiental: Ecología del delito y de la seguridad. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.

English Friendly Course (EFC):
Wortley, R. y Townsley, M. (2016). Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis (2nd Edition). Routledge.

Basic bibliography

Brantingham, P. y Brantingham, P. (1991). Environmental Criminology. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press.

Wortley, R. y Townsley, M. (2016). Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis. Second Edition. Oxon: Routledge.

In-depth bibliography

Canter, D. (2005). Mapping murder. Virgin Books: London.
Clarke, R.V. (1980). “Situational” Crime Prevention. Theory and Practice. British Journal of Criminology, 20, 136-147.
Clarke R.V. y Eck, J.E. (2008). 60 pasos para ser un analista delictivo. México: Instituto Nacional De Ciencias Penales. Disponible en:
http://www.popcenter.org/library/reading/PDFs/60_StepsMexicoNacional.pdf
Cozens, P., Saville, G. y Hillier, D. (2005). Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: A review and modern bibliography. Property Management, 23, 5, 328-356.
Eck, J. E., Chainey, S., Cameron, J. G., Leitner M. y Wilson, R. E (2005). Mapping Crime: Understanding Hot Spots. Washington: National Institute of Justice. Disponible en: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/209393.pdf
Felson, M. y Boba, R. (2009). Crime and everyday life - Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Goldstein, H. (1990). Problem-Oriented Policing. New York: McGraw Hill.
Harries, K. (1999). Mapping Crime: Principle and Practice. Washington DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs
Jeffery, C.R. (1971). Crime prevention through environmental design. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Newman, O. (1972). Defensible Space. New York: Macmillan.
Rossmo, K. (2000). Geographic Profiling. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
San Juan, C. Vozmediano, L. y Vergara, A. (2012). Self-protective behaviours against crime in urban settings: an empirical approach to vulnerability and victimization models. European Journal of Criminology, 9(6), 652-667.
Wortley, R. (2001). A Classification of Techniques for Controlling Situational Precipitators of Crime. Security Journal, 14, 63-82.

Journals

Crime Prevention & Community Safety
Security Journal
Crime Science
Crime Prevention Studies
Crime Patterns and Analysis (Journal of the International Symposium on Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis)
Journal of Environmental Psychology
Environment and Behavior

Web addresses

POP CENTER: www.popcenter.org
Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies: http://www.sfu.ca/icurs.html
International CPTED Association: http://www.cpted.net/
Design Centre For CPTED: http://www.designcentreforcpted.org/
Designing out crime: http://www.designingoutcrime.com/
Crime mapping (National Institute of Justice USA): http://www.nij.gov/nij/topics/technology/maps/