Crime, housing tenure, and urban space: A study of Sheffield

At the heart of how criminology approaches crime in urban space, lies the idea that certain places and social conditions are associated with greater levels of crime, offending, and victimisation. In the UK, social housing is often associated with these issues because of the relative socio-economic deprivation of many of its residents. However, the role housing plays in criminological analysis of urban crime is both limited and neglected. For criminologists, housing is predominantly a tool to situate where crime happens. What this disregards, is a systemic appreciation for how housing relates to the organisation of cities and urban crime patterns. This thesis analyses these issues in the context of Sheffield, the geography and role of housing tenure, and its links to the incidence of crime in the city. Following in the footsteps of Baldwin, Bottoms and Walker’s 1976 publication The Urban Criminal, which examined the same city, the thesis builds on the idea that Sheffield offers a useful case study of many of the social, political, economic, and housing changes of the past half century. Considering the role that tenure plays in shaping crime problems reveals how these relationships influence our broader understanding of crime in cities today. Focusing on the key institutions in the city and how they organise their work, interact with each other, and define the issues which they address, highlights the disproportionate state power exerted over this tenure and its residents. This thesis argues that a reconsideration of the role of housing in the distribution of crime will greatly improve the knowledge of criminologists with regard to the relationship between crime and place. By bringing together analysis of housing, crime, urban change, and power, it is possible to explain how the definition of urban crime problems and problem areas is influenced by the work of institutions.