Neighbourhood Boundaries, Social Disorganisation and Social Exclusion, 2001-2002

This study aims to investigate the underlying premises of UK neighbourhood crime policies and to study the construction of territories of control and the importance of boundaries in the neighbourhood governance of crime and disorder.Two areas were chosen from both Glasgow and Edinburgh (one affluent and one deprived from each).

• Individual interviews were conducted in all the four locations with officers from community, council and housing organisations, community police officers and councillors;
• focus group interviews were conducted with residents from each of the areas studied;
• a postal survey was undertaken with residents from each of the areas (1,207 in total), and the results coded into a quantitative data file for analysis.

Topics covered in the individual and focus group interviews include crime, fear of crime, perceptions of neighbourhood and attitudes towards residents of neighbouring areas and others from 'outside' the immediate community, social deprivation, social and community cohesion, establishment of Neighbourhood Watch groups and other crime prevention and community organisations, and attitudes towards community policing.