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The lack of organisation in urban spaces plays a decisive role in the level of integration, communication and social bonds of the residents, impacting the citizens’ feelings of trust and security. Different personal variables and contextual characteristics have been associated with the fear of crime (FOC). The main objective of this study is to analyse how individual and social/environmental variables, and incivilities, predict crime against people and property, crime that has either happened or is feared to happen. Five hundred and fifty-four residents (M = 43.82; SD = 18.38) in the Historic Centre of Porto (HCP), Portugal, answered 61 items of the Diagnosis of Local Security (DLS) Questionnaire. The results of this study show that in the most frequent crime category, 72% of occurrences represent crime against property. In the feared crime category, there is a preponderance of crime against people (61%). Age of the respondents predicted the most frequent and feared crime, while sex predicted the most feared crime only. Social/environmental variables, as well as incivilities, also predict the frequent and feared crime in two typologies, i.e., crime against people and crime against property. Practical implications to reduce FOC and areas for further investigation are discussed.

Most studies about life experiences and their long-term impact have relied on retrospective assessments and cross-sectional designs. However, there are concerns about the inconsistency of reports, which have been addressed in a limited scope. This study aimed to compare differences on inconsistency between positive and negative experiences to describe potential patterns and to identify sociodemographic, experiences-related and design-related predictors of inconsistency. Adults from community (N = 171) reported their life experiences twice, through self-report or interview. An overall trend of overreporting was found for positive and negative experiences. Additionally, inconsistency on positive experiences was higher than on negative although both variables were correlated. Regarding predictors of inconsistency, the model explained greater variance for negative experiences than for the positive ones. Nevertheless, most variables did not predict inconsistency, with few exceptions: impact for positive experiences, total of experiences for negative experiences, and time interval was marginally significant for both. Available data comparing inconsistency on positive and negative experiences as well as associated predictors are incipient. Overall, it seems that we know more about variables not involved in inconsistency than those that matter. Due to its relevancy, this issue should be further examined.

This quantitative, correlational, and transversal study was performed with a sample of 482 participants from an urban community at the Historic Centre of Porto (HCP). Participants answered to an enquiry designed to collect information about (dis)satisfaction with the police and its performance, with sociodemographic, victimisation, criminal, environmental, social control, and community variables as potential predictors. Findings revealed that the community was mainly satisfied with the police in its efforts to guarantee security, and there was no relationship between those variables, and sociodemographic and some community variables (e.g., years at the HCP, willingness to collaborate in security measures, and strength of attachment to HCP). On the other hand, there were relationships of (dis)satisfaction with the police and being the victim of crime, and some criminal and environmental variables (e.g., perception of increased criminality, conditions promoting crime, and incivilities). Regression analyses found that the perception of increased criminality and the need to adopt improvement measures were significant predictors of dissatisfaction with the police. This study promotes further discussion on factors that can be improved to increase satisfaction with the police and the connection of community–institutions to promote community security.

Criminology theories imply that time is a relevant variable, especially for the prevention and intervention of criminal occurrences. Thus, the study of criminal temporal patterns has been described as being of great relevance. The present study focuses on describing and exploring the influence of temporal and seasonal variables on the occurrence of different types of theft in the Historic Centre of Porto through the analysis of official records of the Public Security Police. Significant differences were found regarding the time of day and season of occurrence, even though it is not observed for all the types of theft analysed. Overall, theft was more prevalent at night and less frequent during winter, which is congruent with previous literature and the routine activity theory. Being the first case study in Porto city, Portugal, this research may be of extreme importance for both designing prevention and intervention policies in the area, and for inspiring future research on a criminal time analysis.