How Crime Governance Defines the Urban Experience

The book explores the complex links between war and order, presenting a well-founded and fresh view on how crime is governed in modern societies. It challenges existing analyses of the relationship between space and social control, offering an original theoretical perspective and a new analytical tool that paves the way for several lines of research examining how dynamic spaces of social control are designed across different spatiotemporal contexts.

The author shows how the uneven distribution of violence and security worldwide is key to understanding how our ideas of order are formed and how we perceive and inhabit cities. This uneven spread of violence and security grants a particular privilege in modern societies: the right to live in less violent areas. Such a privilege affects how crime is regulated and how security issues are addressed.

Fernando uses the case of Bogotá to illustrate how war influences crime governance, even in societies and periods that seem peaceful, and how crime governance affects people's interactions within the city. Consequently, the author offers a compelling explanation of the structure, functioning, and fluidity of social control in modern societies, challenging common explanations of crime governance's social effects, opening multiple avenues for research, and proposing new theoretical foundations for understanding and connecting the experiences of the Global North and South.

Both theoretically rich and accessibly written, this book will appeal to academics and general readers alike, especially those interested in understanding contemporary urban life.