Toward a Healthy Future
A Critical Analysis of Criminological Application in Responding to Violent Crimes: A Non-Empirical South African Study
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Smangele Shandu, Jean Steyn
The rising number of violent crimes across South Africa; murder and rape in reference, highlight the growing need for the South African Police Service (SAPS), to improve on management of these selected crimes. The statistics for 2017/18 show that murder has increased to 20,336 murders. This rate increased from 34.1 per 100,000 people to 35.8, in 2017/18, an average of fifty-six people were murdered every day, this crime is considered to be the most reliable crime statistic, because most murders can be independently verified. Whereas, rape recorded 40,035 rapes in 2017/18, an increase from 39,828 in 2016/17. An average of 110 rapes were recorded by the SAPS each day. The rape rate decreased from 71.3 per 100,000 people to 70.5 in 2017/18. however, negative notion suggests that rape statistics recorded by the police cannot be taken as an accurate measure of either the extent or trend of this crime. The authors used a non-empirical research design (systematic review) to find new knowledge on the topic for the past ten financial years (2008-2018). The findings showed that the contributory factors to violent crimes in South Africa are vast, resulting from ways of solving problems; subculture of violence, learning of violent and aggressive behaviour, among others and the local SAPS inadequately respond to murder and rape. The authors recommend that in order to effectively respond to murder and rape challenges; better training of SAPS personnel is sought, adequate intelligence to predict crimes is required, more resources, coupled with contingency plans and criminological analysis.
Interdisciplinarity and Urban Development: Innovative Planning towards Sustainable and Inclusive Cities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jean Claude Bolay
The urbanization of Southern countries poses major problems today in terms of social and economic disparities and territorial fragmentation. One-third of urban dwellers are globally considered poor and one billion people live in slums. Till now, urban planning has proved unable to offer solutions that are adapted to developing countries. Rethinking planning involves an interdisciplinary understanding of urban globality and a planning based on a transdisciplinary perspective. The work done for more than twenty years in Latin America, Africa, and Vietnam will serve to illustrate the thesis that we defend: planning is not a disciplinary field but a practice born from urbanism and architecture in the Northern countries and reproduced in the cities of the South. Taking into account its failures, urban planning must be redesigned at the crossroads of disciplines between urban planning, technical sciences, and social sciences, in order to better understand the urban complexity. In its practice, planning will be carried out in a transdisciplinary spirit, associating scientific and technical specialists with urban, public and private operators and representatives of civil society. The focal point of inter and transdisciplinary urban planning will then aim to better integrate all stakeholders in order to jointly identify needs and thus meet social demands in a coherent framework that takes into account human and financial resources. The priority objective is to make southern cities sustainable cities based on social inclusion, the fight against poverty and a spatial organization favoring the integration of all and respect for the natural and built environment.
Making Environmental Governance Work in Local Communities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rosa Bella Quindoza
This paper documents experiences and initiatives of selected Philippine localities in environmental governance. It is premised on the concepts of environmental governance that rests upon the meaningful involvement of people in environmental decision-making, particularly those people affected locally and sustainable development implementation which should be based on local level initiatives designed with and by the local communities. It looks at the policy environment, people’s participation, and local communication and indigenous knowledge systems that present opportunities and challenges to local environmental management. Findings help enhance the current understanding of local cultural and policy dimensions in responding to environmental concerns and threats. Results also provide insights on how localities and other local advocates can engage members of the community and policy and decision makers in the advocacy and action for the environment.
Social Capital and Tolerance in Small U.S. Towns
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nicholas Recker
This paper examines the relationship between social capital and perceptions of tolerance in small towns. Social capital theory would suggest potentially differing outcomes with regards to tolerance when social capital is disaggregated into bonding/bridging and structural/subjective. To examine this relationship, this study uses a unique data set comprised of ninety-nine small Iowa communities. Multiple regression is used to develop quantitative findings.
