Books by Vania Ceccato

Criminology has until recently neglected the nature and levels of crime outside the urban realm. This is not a surprise as crime tends to concentrate in urban areas and the police directs resources where the problems are. Yet, there are many reasons why scholars, decision-makers and society as a whole should care about crime and safety in rural areas. First, low crime rates in rural areas are mistakenly taken as a sign that crime is not a problem for those living there (Yarwood, 2001). Second, we argue that crime is not simply an urban phenomenon; it embodies the very same characteristics of the environment it is embedded, in certain cases, crime commission is only possible at those situational rural contexts (e.g., Stassen and Ceccato, 2020). Finally, crime in rural areas are in constant transformation given local and global influences, imposing challenges for policing and not least, for the long term sustainability of rural areas.This book highlights 20 reasons why crime and safety in rural areas is a topic of relevance. We attempt to untangle currently simplistic views of the rural by discussing a number of facets of the countryside as both safe and criminogenic, and more importantly, a hybrid place worth to be examined in its own right. Then, the book critically reviews a rich body of English-language literature in rural criminology that extends over more than five decades¿a scholarship that has engaged researchers and practitioners in all continents. The books finishes with a discussion of the emergent research questions of the field, and offers suggestions for further reading. This is an open access book.

A sustainable city enables the fulfillment of the mobility needs of its citizens via accessible, reliable and safe transportation systems. Safety is one of many factors influencing the mobility of individuals in urban environments. Moving Safely: Crime and Perceived Safety in Stockholm's Subway Stations aims to provide both theoretical and empirical perspectives on safety conditions at subway stations. The book adopts an approach that is place-centered, looking upon those who travel through the system and who may become a victim of crime. Safety at transportation nodes is not a field for one science only; it demands the combination of cross-disciplinary theories (urban criminology, architecture, geography, transportation and urban planning) as well as integrated methods that are capable of dealing with an ever-increasing volume of data. Adopting a whole journey approach to safety, the book offers suggestions on how to plan safety at subway stations with a variety of passengers' needs. Although these suggestions are not the first ones in the literature, certainly they are new in terms of relying on findings from hypothesis testing and spatial data from a Scandinavian city. Moving Safely is relevant for experts in safety and transportation research, including criminologists, planners, transportation engineers, architects as well as professionals dealing directly with safety interventions.