URBAN SOCIOLOGY

ADS605

CHAPTER 5
SECURITY

urban sociology (ADS605) 1

 CHAPTER 5
SECURITY
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter a student should be able to :

i.Explain about the urban crimes.

ii.Identify the coping strategies for prevention of crime.
iii.Explain about the gated and cyber communities.
iv.Understand the current issues and challenges of security.
v.Understand the current issues and challenges of security in
Malaysia.

urban sociology (ADS605) 2

SNAPSHOT OF SECURITY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq1a3bRCWZk

3 urban sociology (ADS605)

 TOPIC 5: Security
The urban crimes
•When people speak of crime, they usually mean violent crime and
occurrences of violence, especially random street crime, that are very
troublesome in cities.
•Crime Index January – April 2016 is 38,877 cases (Jabatan Pencegahan
Jenayah dan Keselamatan Komuniti).
•The statistic increased to 4.6% compared to the previous year
•58% of crime involved are burglary and motorcycle theft
 TOPIC 5: Security
The urban crimes.

“In 1990, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Detroit all had
more than 500 murders, that is a rate considerably exceeding one a day. New York
City, for example, had 2,245 murders, Los Angeles 983, Chicago 851 and Houston
568. Per capita, however, cities like Dallas, Seattle, Detroit and San Antonio have
the highest rates. Property crime is also a problem in urban areas although it exists
in suburban regions as well. In 1990, NYC had over 500,000 incidents of property
crime, Los Angeles and Chicago over 200,000, and Houston
over 160,000.
These statistics suggest that cities are dangerous places. However, in any urban
area, crimes are not spread out evenly; they are committed in certain distinct
locations, usually in the poorer sections of town. There are, therefore, high and low
crime areas in any city and visitors should know about this difference. For any US
city, despite the troubling rates of crime, there are areas that are quite safe.”
 TOPIC 5: Security
The urban crimes.

•High crime rates are troubling because they affect the ability of
people to use city space.
•Then that negatively affects the attractiveness of living there
and those people that can, will move out to the suburbs.
•Today the use of much public space in urban areas is limited
 TOPIC 5: Security
The urban crimes.
•Crime pushes up the security budgets of companies and households
and results in billions of dollars in unnecessary medical expenses for
the victims of violent actions. It can also devastate property values and
the value of property is depressed.
•As a result, innocent households suffer doubly in crime-infested areas
because they are both victims of crime, in many cases, and also
because the value of their property declines.
•Type of crime will trigger the emergence of other crimes for example
drug abuse.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Coping strategies for prevention of crime.

Four strategies are:

•The residence (gated society, safety guard, cctv etc)
•Authorities (police patrol, cctv, rules and rugulation)
•Collaboration among enforcement agencies (NBOS)
•Collaboration between enforcement agencies and
residence (Rakan Cop, Rukun Tetangga etc)
 TOPIC 5: Security
Gated and cyber communities.
•Gated Community is communities that sought to seal themselves off from the
general population or visitors and residents alike must stop at a security post in
order to gain access,.
•Developments of this type appeared around most major cities as wealthy people
used incorporation to create their own exclusive enclaves.
•Exclusive developments that seal themselves off by means of very tight security
measures can be found in all parts of the metropolitan region, including areas of
the city as well as the suburbs.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Gated and cyber communities.
•The exclusivity of gated communities gives residents a feeling of
high status, a sense of community, and a sense of control over local
services.
•Through regular scheduled meetings, residents often have the
experience of more direct contact with the neighbors and more
involvement in the governance of their local area
 TOPIC 5: Security
Gated and cyber communities.
•The emergence of Cyber Community is the growth of new technologies and the
new information society, resulting in a declining importance of geography and
space and, ultimately, of the physical structures of the metropolis.
•The more time that persons spend online, whether talking with friends, shopping
in cyber malls, or trolling websites, the less time they spend participating with
fellow citizens in their local community.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Gated and cyber communities.
•Contemporary society as an informational global economy, where the global
structure of the world system is based upon a logic of flow, connectivity,
networks, and nodes.
•The core activities of the global economy are linked in real time, and the daily
work schedule is now on a planetary scale.
•There is no longer a geography of spatial location, and social processes will have
no particular grounding in the study of cities, suburbs, and metropolitan regions,
thereby erasing the importance of urban sociology as a discipline.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Gated and cyber communities.
•Modern capitalism has created new technologies that have collapsed time and
space; our very casual references to the powerful idea of cyberspace indicate how
quickly and pervasively this transformation has taken place.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Current issues and challenges of security.
•The urban crime usually refer to violent crime and occurrences of violence such as
street crime at the most city in the world (frequent acts of violence associated with
robberies, street muggings and gang-related shootings).
•Crimes are not spread out evenly; they are committed in certain distinct locations, such
as in the poorer sections of town. The visitor should anticipate the different between
high and low crime areas in any city.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Current issues and challenges of security.
•Crime vocabullaries – urban violence, urban crime, riots, disorders, disturbances,
unrest, urban danger, rebellion, confrontation, lawlessness, delinquency, and many
more – to characterize such events. The use of similar terms makes all things look alike.’
•Violence has indeed been a characteristic of cities historically, but the acts and causes
vary greatly example in Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria etc.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Current issues and challenges of security.
•The difficulty for the authorities is whether any increase in the crime figures is a
function of increased reporting or actual crimes.
•Immigration from less developed countries has led to an unprecedented level of city
crime with all the social consequences that this correlation implies.
•High crime rates are troubling because they affect the ability of people to use city space
(negatively affects the attractiveness of living).
•Crime pushes up the security budgets of companies and households and results in
billions of dollars in unnecessary medical expenses for the victims of violent actions.
•The start of crime and violent is DRUG.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Current issues and challenges of
security in Malaysia.
According to The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) (https://www.osac.gov)
•Petty crime is fairly common in Malaysia, while violent crime remains relatively
uncommon. There continued to be a noticeable increase in crime, including several
reported assaults and robberies, sometimes involving weapons, in Kuala Lumpur in 2015.
Petty theft (purse snatching, pickpocketing, smash thefts, residential burglaries) is the
most common crime committed against foreigners. Other types of non-violent criminal
activity include credit card fraud, automobile theft, and cybercrime.
•Taxi drivers in downtown Kuala Lumpur have been involved in recent incidents of
violent crime against foreign tourists and local residents. 
•Prostitution is illegal but common in some areas.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Current issues and challenges of
security in Malaysia.
According to ACP Amar Singh Sindhu (2005)
•Crime trends in Malaysia There has been a development of crime trends from the pre-
Independence period to that of the present date (refer to Fig 2). It has developed from
its humble beginnings of its simple theft, physical injuries caused by direct confrontation
and simple wayside robbery, to that of syndicated crimes and now the more complex
borderless crimes. Crimes now have become more complex and sometimes impossible
to detect. White collar crime has taken a new turn in that it has become trans-border
with its transactions taking place thousands of miles away and thus causing jurisdiction
problems. Criminals have taken a progressive road to enhance themselves with
investigative knowledge thus making the work of the police forensic investigator more
arduous and difficult.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Current issues and challenges of
security in Malaysia.
According to ACP Amar Singh Sindhu (2005)
•Standards of Measuring Crime, The Royal Malaysia Police Force in its administrative functions further
divides this Index Crime into two categories .
i.Violent Crime which generally includes crimes of violence that are sufficiently regular and significant
in occurrence of which there are eight in all. These include murder, attempted murder, gang robbery
with firearm, gang robbery without firearm, robbery with firearm, robbery without firearm, rape and
lastly voluntarily causing hurt.
ii.Property Crime includes those offences involving the loss of property during which there is no use of
violence by the perpetrators. There are seven types of crimes in this category and they include
housebreaking and theft by day, housebreaking and theft by night, theft of lorries and van, theft of
motor car, theft of motorcycles and scooters, theft of bicycles and lastly other forms of theft.
 TOPIC 5: Security
Current issues and challenges of
security in Malaysia.
According to ACP Amar Singh Sindhu (2005)
•Some causes of increase of crime in Malaysia are:
•Population Increase
•Unemployment
•The Indian Problem
•Influx of illegal workers
•The issue of ‘Lepak’
•Narcotics and Crime
•Motor Vehicle Theft
 TOPIC 5: Security
Current issues and challenges of security in
Malaysia.
(Action taken by Malaysian Goverment)
i.Crime Lab (30 representatives from ministries, private sectors and NGOs cooperate to
decrease the crime and violence index and statistic).
ii.Strengthening the capabilities and functionality of the police (Rakan Cop, Motorcycle
Police Patrols, Management of case reports and enforcement and crime prevention etc)
iii.Safety City Concepts
 TOPIC 5: Security
Current issues and challenges of security in
Malaysia.
(Action taken by Malaysian Goverment)
iv.Collobaration between authorities and society (KRT= Kejiranan Rukun Tetangga,
Auxiliary police etc)
v.Akta Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah 2009
vi.Insititut Integriti Malaysia (IIM)
vii.Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (http://www.mcpf.org.my/about-mcpf)
 URBAN SOCIOLOGY
ADS605
-Security-
Summary

Crime has multiple meanings. Those meanings are socially constructed. The most
important differences in the meanings of crime occur between strictly legal definitions
and those that relate crime to the breaking of other codes and conventions – normative
definitions.  The prevention strategies in not only by the authorities such as police but the
collaboration with and within the society. The desire among security and safety program
practitioners, policy makers, scholars, scientists, parents, and society to make sure people
in urban are healthy, happy, safe, and productive is not new. Security is about safety and
crime issues. Vary factors trigger the crime and all parties in the socitey should unite to
prevent and manage the statistic of crime.

23 urban sociology (ADS605)

 URBAN SOCIOLOGY
ADS605
-Urban community-
Reference

Amar Singh Sindhu. (2005) The Rise Of Crime In Malaysia: An academic and statistical analysis.
Journal of the Kuala Lumpur Royal Malaysia Police College (4)
Gottdiener, M. , Hutchison, R. and Ryan, M. T. (2014) The New Urban Sociology, 5rd edition, Colorado:
Westview Press.
Gottdiener, M. , Budd, L. and Lehtovuori, P. (2016) Key Concepts in Urban Studies, 2nd edition,
London: Sage Publications Ltd.
The Overseas Security Advisory Council https://www.osac.gov

24 urban sociology (ADS605)

 URBAN SOCIOLOGY
ADS605
-Urban community-
Quiz
True False Questions

Statement True False

High crime rates are troubling because they affect the ability of people to use city x
space.
Crime pushes up the security budgets of companies and households and results in x
billions of dollars in unnecessary medical expenses for the victims of violent
actions.
The emergence of Cyber Community is the growth of new technologies and the x
new information society, resulting in a increasing importance of geography and
space and, ultimately, of the physical structures of the metropolis.
Violence has indeed been a characteristic of cities historically, but the acts and x
causes limited.

Property Crime includes those offences involving the loss of property during which x
there is no use of violence by the perpetrators. 25 urban sociology (ADS605)
URBAN SOCIOLOGY
ADS605
-Urban community-
Author
Muhamad Fuad Bin Abdul Karim
fuad645@ns.uitm.edu.my

Author
Dr. Nor Hafizah Binti Mohamed Harith
norha561@salam.uitm.edu.my

Author
Ahmad Faiz Bin Yaacob
ahmad408@ns.uitm.edu.my

26 urban sociology (ADS605)