This edited collection provides an original and comprehensive take on retail crime and its prevention, by combining international data and multidisciplinary perspectives from criminologists, economists, geographers, police officers and other experts. Drawing on environmental criminology theory and situational crime prevention, it focusses on crime and safety in retail environments but also the interplay between individuals, products and settings such as stores, commercial streets and shopping malls, as well as the wider context of situational conditions of the supply chain in which crime occurs. Chapters offer state-of-the-art research on retail crime from a range of countries such as Australia, Brazil, Israel, Italy, Sweden, the UK and the USA. This methodological and well-researched study is devoted to both academics and practitioners from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds whose common interest is to prevent retail crime and overall retail loss.

The chapters 'Crime in a Scandinavian Shopping Centre' and 'Perceived Safety in a Shopping Centre' are published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.

The objective of this article is to report patterns of passenger's satisfaction with their safety at an international European airport.1 The study is based on an analysis of a 2014–2015 passenger safety survey with particular focus on the impact of the airport's environment on passenger safety. Chi-square analysis and binary logistic regression underpin the methodology used in the study. Findings show that about one third of passengers are dissatisfied with their perceived safety. Airport entrances, security checkpoints, boarding areas, toilets, and restaurants are places where passengers declare feeling less satisfied with their safety. Regardless whether passengers are arriving or departing, their satisfaction with safety is affected by their perception of an airport's environment (e.g., elevators, overall maintenance) and also by the overall experience of being in transit. Findings call for research and interventions that consider passenger safety as a multifaceted phenomenon and that adopt a whole-journey approach to transit safety.

A survey has been performed on departing middle- and long-distance train passengers on a selection of 14 since 1990 new or rebuilt railway stations in Sweden. The passengers’ rating of security was one of the questions included in the survey, which dealt with several aspects on localization of the station. A linear regression analysis (OLS) revealed that the Perceived Station Security (PSS) Index is explained by a number of physical factors in the station environment. Individual or socio-economic factors are however too vague to be significant. The model is significant but the model fit is low and the results should be interpreted as preliminary. Examples of environmental factors that increase the PSS are if the station has built-in stairs between station building and platforms and if there is a café or restaurant with seating in the station, while reconstruction in progress decreases the PSS. The distance to the city or local centre has an effect, and peripheral stations in general have a lower PSS than centrally located.

The aim of this article is to discuss the trends and nature of rural violence in Brazil. Assuming the hypothesis of an increase in violence rates, urban–rural violence rates are compared at three geographical levels: national (Brazil), state (São Paulo), and municipal (Rio Claro). The study combines the analyses of official statistics with newspaper reports, videos, and articles published by the national media. Findings indicate an increase in violence in rural areas in recent decades but such a rise is far from homogenous across the country; it shows links to patterns of population change, economic expansion, and organized crime. Although violence has long being an inherent characteristic of rural Brazil—a place of conflicts and struggles—it is argued here that the more recent rise in violence is distinct from the past, at least in its portrayal by the media. The article finalizes by suggesting a research agenda to improve the understanding of the dynamics of violence in the Brazilian context.

The objective of this study is to understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of suicides in commuting railway environments. Data on suicides in Stockholm commuting railway from 2006 to 2013 was analysed. The study sets out to identify significant clusters in suicides then evaluate whether commuting railway environments affect variations in suicide rates. Fieldwork inspection, spatial cluster techniques (NNHC and Getis-Ord statistics) and regression models underlie the methodology of study. Findings show no seasonality was observed in suicide cases, but winter months concentrate a larger share of events. Suicides do not occur evenly throughout the day but tend to take place more often in weekdays. Modelling findings shows that suicide rates increase with speed trains and decrease where barriers along tracks are installed. Although high speed trains are still a motive of concern for suicide prevention, findings call for a whole railway-approach to safety - one that extends maintenance beyond the platforms and stations' vicinities.

Although the international literature shows strong evidence of the effect of crime in large urban areas, particularly on housing prices, little is known about the link between crime and property prices in nonmetropolitan areas. This article describes the effect of residential burglary on the housing market in a nonmetropolitan municipality in Sweden, using data on property sales in 2005 and 2011. The study employs different strategies of hedonic price modelling to estimate the impact of residential burglary while controlling for property and neighbourhood characteristics; in particular, it explores the use of quantile regression and spatial analysis. The findings show that residential burglary has a significant negative effect on property prices in 2011 but no impact in 2005, which might be a result of the dramatic global economic downturn between these years. The article concludes with a discussion on the practical implications of the findings and offers suggestions for future research.

A park is a desirable feature when people are purchasing a property. Buyers are ready to pay more for properties surrounded by natural amenities, such as a pleasant park. However, if a park is targeted by crime and disorder, then it may have a negative effect on people's appraisal. The aim of this study is to reach a better understanding of how parks and crime rates affect housing prices taking into account residential properties and parks type. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is used as the case study. The methodology has two stages. An extensive field work was performed in a selected number of parks to help characterize the parks in Stockholm. This information was gathered with secondary data about parks using Geographic Information System. This pre-assessment was later followed by the analysis of 2008s apartment sales using hedonic modelling to assess the effect of parks alone and in combination with crime rates. Results suggest that the effect of parks on prices vary by park type (increased with, e.g. features of cultural and national interest and decreased with ball games or boating facilities) while an aggregated measure of parks lowers overall apartment prices. More interestingly, findings show that the price of apartments tends to be discounted in areas where parks have relatively high rates of violence and vandalism.

Stockholm is one of the most accessible cities in Europe. This Scandinavian capital received the 2013 Access City award for disabled-friendly cities, a third place after Berlin and Nantes, France. However, the goal of providing safe mobility for all remains a challenge. People with one or more disabilities report being victims of assault and robbery twice as often as the general population. They avoid going out after dark because they are afraid of being exposed to crime more often than the rest of the population. The elderly, women and the disabled are often pointed out as being more fearful than other groups of passengers. The aim of this paper is to report on the safety conditions for passengers who report themselves as having a disability using data from different sources. The study also illustrates a number of initiatives that are intended to provide safe mobility for all, both from the perspective of those who are responsible for the delivery of transportation services and from those who use the system. The paper finishes with a discussion of current challenges both in practice and research.

Crime is often perceived as an urban issue rather than a problem that occurs in rural areas, but how far is this view tenable? This book explores the relationship between crime and community in rural areas and addresses the notion of safety as part of the community dynamics in such areas. Rural Crime and Community Safety makes a significant contribution to crime science and integrates a range of theories to understand patterns of crime and perceived safety in rural contexts. Based on a wealth of original research, Ceccato combines spatial methods with qualitative analysis to examine, in detail, farm and wildlife crime, youth related crimes and gendered violence in rural settings. Making the most of the expanding field of Criminology and of the growing professional inquiry into crime and crime prevention in rural areas; rural development; and the social sustainability of rural areas, this book builds a bridge by connecting Criminology and Human Geography. This book will be suitable for academics, students and practitioners in the fields of criminology, community safety, rural studies, rural development and gender studies.