Community and the Problem of Crime

Karen Evans is a senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool, where she has been employed since 1999. Immediately prior to this lecturing post she was Community Safety Co-ordinator working for the Moss Side and Hulme Partnership in Manchester, UK. With a first degree in Economics and Politics and an employment history, which involved working with the homeless and as a welfare rights advisor, Karen was a somewhat reluctant criminologist. Her research into urban transformations alongside the late Ian Taylor in the early 1990s led her into research into experiences of crime and victimisation in various cities in the Northwest of England, collaborating with Sandra Walklate and others in Liverpool. Karen's work since that time has focused, although not exclusively, around communities in excluded neighbourhoods and their responses to marginalisation and deprivation. She has taught the module Community and the Problem of Crime in Liverpool for the last ten years.

'Karen Evans's latest book, Community and the Problem of Crime, represents an excellent analytical and empirically-grounded guide to this highly contested and massively important area of social scientific inquiry. This challenging yet accessible monograph will become an invaluable "must-have" text for students of sociological criminology in particular. Evans makes significant contribution to our cumulative sociological knowledge of the crime-community "nexus".' - Gordon Hughes, Chair in Criminology, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK‘The concept "community" is much used and abused in studies of crime, disorder and crime prevention. The language of community is frequently deployed as cause, location, symptom and solution for all manner of social problems. Fortunately, at last there is a book which brings a splendid, constructively critical, perspective to bear on this many-faceted phenomenon, even engaging with the diverse and contrary tendencies of real communities - marginalisation, stigmatisation, privatisation, securitisation and militarisation – as they reshape the social contexts through which we move/in which we live. A refreshing and original read.’ Peter Squires, Professor of Criminology & Public Policy, University of Brighton, UK‘This terrific book provides an exploration of the paradoxes and contradictions of "community" as these relate to crime and social justice. It demonstrates how community is seen to be both a source of social problems and the solution to it, and how it is strategically applied in ways that incorporate and/or marginalise specific population groups. Providing a theoretically informed analysis of concrete cases, trends and issues, the book makes a wonderful contribution to critical appraisals of the dynamics of contemporary society. A vital resource.’ - Rob White, Professor of Criminology, University of Tasmania, Australia

• Introduction 1. The meaning and uses of community 2. Community and Crime 3. Disorderly Communities 4. Regenerating Communities 5. Fractured Communities 6. Suspect and Profiled Communities 7. Policing Communities 8. The problem of community.