Geographies of criminal victimization in Canada

This paper provides a summary review and analysis of some of the recent literature on the geography of crime and criminal victimization, especially as it relates to Canada. The topic is approached from a risk perspective focussing on human vulnerability to criminal victimization. The analysis reveals divergent per spectives in the literature. On one hand, the most readily accessible literature is that of the dominant geographical representation of crime in Canada which is found in the official reports of the criminal justice system, media reports, and social science texts. This perspective concentrates on offences and maps of the spatial distribution of crime. On the other hand, there is a less integrated literature which is both critical of, and complementary to, the dominant view. This literature emphasizes the victims of crime and gives particular attention to the role of local context and community in conditioning human vulnerability These different perspectives reflect a fundamental spatial tension between a criminal justice system which attempts to manage the hazards of criminal activity through technocratic, large scale, and centralized practices, and the need and desire of individuals and communities to maintain some degree of local control over their own vulnerability and public safety.