‘Before there was danger but there was rules and safety in those Rules’: effects of neighbourhood redevelopment on criminal structures

Research has shown that ‘street codes’ often govern behaviour and violence in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. However, little is known about what happens to established street codes in a context of massive neighbourhood change. Our research in Regent Park, Canada’s oldest and largest public housing ne...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Urbanik, Marta-Marika (Author) ; Thompson, Sara K. 1971- (Author) ; Bucerius, Sandra M. 1978- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2017
In: The British journal of criminology
Year: 2017, Volume: 57, Issue: 2, Pages: 422-440
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Keywords:
Street code
Public housing
Victimization
Violence
Neighbourhood restructuring
Gangs
Straßenkultur
Kulturelle Codes
Sozialer Brennpunkt
Sozialer Wohnungsbau
Restrukturierung
Description
Summary:Research has shown that ‘street codes’ often govern behaviour and violence in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. However, little is known about what happens to established street codes in a context of massive neighbourhood change. Our research in Regent Park, Canada’s oldest and largest public housing neighbourhood currently undergoing neighbourhood restructuring, we suggest that the displacement of ‘major criminal players’ from the neighbourhood has eroded the long-established codes of conduct they enforced and has undermined informal systems of criminal governance in the neighbourhood. As a consequence, young people express concern over what they perceive to be a growing preponderance of violence in the context of a competitive rush to fill a power vacuum created by the displacement of neighbourhood ‘old heads’.
ISSN:1464-3529
DOI:10.1093/bjc/azv128