Crime and the City: Urban Encounters, Civility, and Tolerance

This chapter examines how cities are central to understandings of civility and tolerance and their relationships to crime and antisocial behaviour. The chapter identifies the importance of urban encounters in public space and explores whether antisocial behaviour, incivilities and a general antipathy towards ‘others’ are increasing in contemporary societies. The chapter looks at definitions of civility and tolerance and theories about how urban behaviours in public space are related to wider urban economic, social and cultural forces and how civility and tolerance are being transformed in a new planetary urbanism and social Darwinism. The chapter concludes with an examination of the governance of urban insecurities and public perceptions of these, followed by consideration of how a new urban civility and tolerance may be engendered through meaningful interaction.