Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

Official poverty measures frequently neglect the distinct expressions of urban enclaves. The inextricable link with crime is one of them, especially in Latin America, one of the most violent regions in the world. However, crime is rarely considered as part of the traditional measures of multidimensional poverty. We conducted a systematic literature review to examine the most common mechanisms linking crime and poverty in urban settings. We reviewed 1,505 academic papers published in peer-reviewed journals and, based on quality criteria, we selected sixty for an in-depth analysis. Notably, most of the field used quantitative methods, was conducted in the United States and Europe, and mainly focused on how poverty leads to crime, while few papers explored the inverse relation, which is the most needed for a poverty measure. We found that the clearest expressions of urban poverty and crime were the concentration of disadvantages, the socioeconomic and spatial segregation, precarious employment, low levels of collective efficacy, and some urban policies. We conclude that crime should be considered as an important dimension to measure urban poverty because it limits people´s freedom and capabilities. Nonetheless, several measurement challenges remain, such as, a definition of crime and insecurity, the heterogeneity of effects in subpopulations, the appropriate measurement level, the quality of the available data, and the interrelation with other dimensions. The review identifies the specific role of urban processes in the link between poverty and crime. Thus, it helps to improve urban poverty measures by pinpointing key decisions and recommendations.