STREET CRIMES AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS

On the level of quality of life in the cities, street crimes play a relevant role because the safety of citizens is involved. It is a world wide problem that is now increasing in relation to a number of factors, among them the new migrations, the level of maintenace of the towns, the level of community policing. The terminology of street crimes is commonly referred to minor crimes such as vandalism, graffiti, theft, robberies, fights, but the usually open the street to heavier crimes, from drug dealing and prostitution and so on. From the second half of last century(Shaw , McKay ) it is accepted that a poor town level, lack of services and maintenace, are good incentives to street crimes. In 1982 Kelling e Wilson wrote a famous paper about “broken windows” where they offer the theory that a broken window is an evidence of lack of interest for the neighborhoods thus inducing a criminal mind to act incorrectly. The solution is of course a town designed on the basis of crime prevention through environmental design, and on this direction are acting some towns, for a limited part of them, due to the costs of the intervention. The great problem is that in our cities a lot of unused buildings exist due to displacement of industries, offices, or simply because they are hold and their upgrade is economically not convenient. The paper refers about real situations in Italy and their renovation plans.