The climate of crime and urban health: Exploring the relationship between urban heat islands and behaviour

Abstract

This study’s central theoretical premise suggests climate change, urbanisation, and de-greening have led to local Urban Heat Islands which amplify aggressive behavioural proclivities and crime. The study explores the implications of urban micro-climate temperature on violent behaviour and further developing on the extant corpus that infers crime statistics to such climatic conditions. This research undertook a scoping review of the extant literature and synthesised selected papers based on their theories, their methodological frameworks, their evaluation case studies, and their relevancy in associating aggressive urban-related crimes to climatic conditions. To extend on existing theoretical knowledge, the study evaluated and interpreted inductive reasoning from multiple studies, and focused on identifying existing research gaps, rigour, and consistency of theoretical application to context and outcomes. To examine the voracity of theory in practice, the study undertook a case study demographic and population analysis and statistical analysis of crime and temperature in Midland, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The findings highlight that studies are still in their infancy and predominantly stem from case studies situated in the Northern Hemisphere. Moreover, considerable social, environmental, economic, and demographic variance exist, as do behavioural nuances across contexts. The adaptivity of cities in response to the changing human and climatic conditions are worthy of further examination, given their nexus with global warming and densification on future crime trends, an area with significant capacity to inform government and judicial policies. The study highlights planning complexity, develops further clarity for designers to mitigate urbanisation harms, and informs police resource planning, and urban policymaking.

RAS ID

83668

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Date of Publication

1-1-2025

Volume

563 LNCE

School

School of Arts and Humanities

Copyright

subscription content

Publisher

Springer

Identifier

Emil E. Jonescu: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3508-406X

Comments

Jonescu, E. E., Ramanayaka, C. E., Olatunji, O. A., & Uylaki, T. J. (2025). The climate of crime and urban health: Exploring the relationship between urban heat islands and behaviour. In M. Sutrisna, M. B. Jelodar, N. Domingo, A. Le, & R. Kahandawa (Eds.), Creating capacity and capability: Embracing advanced technologies and innovations for sustainable future in building education and practice. AUBEA 2023 (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, Vol. 563, pp. 415–431). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-2904-6_32

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