Abstract

Aygün Erdo an

According to place-based crime theories, the distribution of crime incidents in a city is related to how different areas of a city are developed; and consequently, by developing an understanding of the relationship between the distribution of crime and the urban structure, the potential for crime prevention through urban planning and design may be increased. This paper aims to explore this relationship in a case study area, and looks into new ecology theories such as Defensible Space, CPTED and Crime Pattern in relation to the Turkish planning system and the ongoing urban transformations from a critical perspective. For this purpose, the spatial and temporal distributions of place-related crime incidents against people and property in a one-year period were studied in a particular police station zone, that of Etlik, Ankara, which contains planned, squatter and in-transition settlements. In parallel to placebased theories, general properties of crime incidents displayed a clustering in space and time; and were concentrated primarily in planned areas. The paper concludes with an elaboration of the problems in the Turkish planning system and urban transformation programs that have been implemented in Ankara and other cities, and proposes concrete strategies for the place-based prevention of crimes in the planning system.