What do place-based crime prevention strategies mean for the Turkish planning system and urban transformation?

Abstract

According to place-based crime theories, the distribution of crime incidents in a city is related to how different areas
of a city are developed; and consequently, by developing an understanding of the relationship between the
distribution of crime and the urban structure, the potential for crime prevention through urban planning and design
may be increased. This paper aims to explore this relationship in a case study area, and looks into new ecology
theories such as Defensible Space, CPTED and Crime Pattern in relation to the Turkish planning system and the
ongoing urban transformations from a critical perspective. For this purpose, the spatial and temporal distributions of
place-related crime incidents against people and property in a one-year period were studied in a particular police
station zone, that of Etlik, Ankara, which contains planned, squatter and in-transition settlements. In parallel to placebased
theories, general properties of crime incidents displayed a clustering in space and time; and were
concentrated primarily in planned areas. The paper concludes with an elaboration of the problems in the Turkish
planning system and urban transformation programs that have been implemented in Ankara and other cities, and
proposes concrete strategies for the place-based prevention of crimes in the planning system.