This article analyses the risk to urban safety associated with green areas and other open spaces in two informal neighbourhoods located on the periphery of Bogot & aacute;: Cerezos (Soacha) and Bella Flor (Ciudad Bolivar). The study is conducted in vulnerable contexts characterised by the presence of displaced populations, deficits in public space provision, and weak institutional support, all of which contribute to conditions of insecurity. Drawing on an integrated framework that combines critical geography, environmental criminology, and the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) approach, the research examines the relationship between urban configuration, visibility, maintenance, and natural surveillance. Methodologically, the study adopts a quantitative descriptive-correlational approach with a non-experimental cross-sectional design, operationalising risk through an index that integrates perceived vulnerability, exposure to legally defined crimes, official crime statistics, and conditions of urban precariousness. Fifteen indicators of open spaces were assessed using a participatory matrix applied to the community and triangulated with expert judgement and institutional sources. The results reveal a heterogeneous spatial distribution of risk: Bella Flor presents predominantly low-risk levels with localised critical points, whereas Cerezos concentrates medium and high-risk levels, particularly in sports parks. The study suggests that green areas may be associated either with social cohesion or with elevated risk conditions, depending on their spatial configuration, maintenance, and local territorial dynamics.
Peripheral urban areas are often the focus of crime-related news reports, which highlight their social distress and degradation-a perspective that has also become widespread in the academic literature. However, urbanization trends and increasing poverty have radically reshaped the geography of urban deprivation, making cities as a whole susceptible to these phenomena, not only their peripheral areas. While pursuing the principle of deprived areas regeneration, not informed urban planning choices may unintentionally increase crime. This work investigates the potential spatial relationship between the occurrence of crimes in some places in the city, and urban poverty, understood as a multidimensional phenomenon given by the combination of several factors, related to the socio-economic hardship of the resident population and the degradation of buildings and homes. A GIS-based methodology is proposed aimed at Mapping Urban Poverty (I) and Crime (II), in order to investigate their possible spatial relationship through analysis techniques: crime distribution (III); normalized crime density (IV); the spatial concentration of crimes, using the Kernel Density Estimation technique (V). Urban poverty is measured using a composite index (UPI), whose increase corresponds to higher levels of criticality. The application to the case study of Milan reveals that the areas with highest UPI values are mostly peripheral, while crime incidence is higher in the more central areas, rich in attractors and flows of people. However, there are no substantial differences between the various UPI levels in the percentage distribution and overall density of the categories and types of crime. In addition, it was possible to identify critical areas where both urban poverty and the spatial crime density are high, in which integrated urban regeneration actions are necessary.
The chapter "The evaluation of crime preventions and urban security policies" focuses on the two most common evaluation procedure: crime prevention-process and outcome evaluation. A process evaluation aims to improve understanding of the activities that are delivered as part of a programme and assess whether they have been implemented as planned. An outcome evaluation is more concerned with the overall effectiveness of a programme of crime prevention. Evaluation needs to be as objective as possible, based on previously established criteria, a transparent process on how data is collected and analysed, the evaluation undertaken and how different appreciations are included, structured interpretation of the predicted or actual impacts of proposals. In this perspective, evaluation is the structured interpretation of the predicted impacts of crime prevention programme implemented at local level. Its aims are democratic accountability, strategic, in order to validate the action to be taken, and operational, to analyse implementation.
Urban safety has become an essential component of urban quality, shaping cities' liveability. In Turin, this issue is particularly pertinent: the city ranks sixth in Italy for the number of reported crimes. Urban green spaces are a prime example of this complexity, combining ecological and social functions with critical conditions such as perceived insecurity, conflicts of use and spatial configurations that may exacerbate vulnerability. This paper applies CPTED-based indicators, developed within the PRIN SeTUP, to Turin to measure the vulnerability and exposure of urban parks, and to analyse their spatial implications. Through on-site audits and GIS analysis, the study provides a comparative analysis of selected parks. It demonstrates the usefulness of these indicators as analytical tools, while also highlighting their limitations when not supported by a device capable of translating results into planning-oriented guidance. The paper therefore examines how these insights can be integrated into a masterplan conceived as a non-binding technical document capable of prefiguring desirable spatial scenarios, connecting objectives with expected performance and acting as a bridge between the structural and operational dimensions of planning. From this perspective, the masterplan incorporates urban safety into transformation processes, avoiding the fragmentation associated with external sectoral plans, and restores a guiding role to urban planning in shaping the
Public green spaces emerge as vital pillars for fostering social resilience and crime reduction, as their physical configuration directly shapes human behaviour and the perceived sense of security. While existing literature underscores the importance of factors like visibility and maintenance, a significant methodological gap persists in creating assessment models that are both scientifically rigorous and seamlessly integrable into urban planning workflows. To address this challenge, the present research, supported by the EU-funded research project "SeTUP-Security Town through Urban Planning", introduces a decision-support framework that integrates Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) techniques. This study proposes a methodology to assess the perceived safety of urban parks, to support a replicable, planning-oriented decision-making process. The results of the analysis led to a ranking of the analysed urban parks based on their safety levels. The use of the E-TOPSIS method allowed us to map spatial patterns and identify the most critical variables affecting perceived safety. The methodology is validated through an application within the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB). Examining a sample of 52 parks, the research highlights the AMB's focus on green infrastructure as outlined in the Metropolitan Urban Master Plan (PDUM). To evaluate the spatial implications of the findings, the PDUM's priority area maps for open spaces and public facilities were overlapped via GIS, with the data layer representing the most critical parks identified. The results not only offer a new methodological approach for planners but also provide practical insights for local administrations.
