Exploring spatial crime impedance to highlight risky places: A Space Syntax-based environmental approach to urban security

The environmental approach to urban security acknowledges the importance that spatial and social dimensions of urban environments have for both real and perceived security, emphasizing the need to understand how urban spaces influence human behaviour. Space Syntax offers insights into human behavioural patterns in space by examining the spatial configuration of places and identifying individuals' movement patterns, representing an asset to uncovering underlying spatial dynamics in criminal behaviour, both at the urban and micro-urban scale. The association between Space Syntax and crime patterns is not new, however additional steps should be taken to associate it to environmental criminological theories, which deconstruct the components that contribute to crime occurrence. Considering this, the research delves into the existing correlations between crime distributions and intrinsic spatial properties derived from Space Syntax, using the historic centre of Pisa, Italy, as a case study. Two objectives are set: (1) identifying a comprehensive set of significant measures to explore crime phenomena through a discussion of previous research and an examination of the logic of criminology theories; and (2) to develop and discuss a methodology for linking Space Syntax metrics with crime distribution patterns, and assess correlations between space and crimes, thus identifying risky areas within the urban context. The direction and the strength of correlations between certain type of crime and specific attributes of the environment suggests the existence of a “Spatial Crime Impedance” property: a measure of natural resistance that the urban environment, considering only its spatial configuration and physical layout, opposes to criminal activities.