Research Projects

 

  •    Burglary prevention in Vienna

In a project on the social and administrative conditions of burglary prevention in Vienna Günter Stummvoll worked on a hot-spot analysis of domestic burglaries in Vienna using GIS for crime mapping, and he conducted expert interviews with representatives of private housing associations, officials of the Vienna City Council, the Police Advisory Service as well as managing directors of security companies. The project was funded by the Vienna City Council together with Siemens Austria and the Austrian Police Advisory Service (total budget: 39.980,- €).
 

  •    The 2nd International Self Report Study on Youth Delinquency (ISRD_2) in Austria

ISRD_2 was funded by the Jubilee Fund of the Austrian National Bank together with the Ministry of Education. Günter Stummvoll was fully responsible for the application, administration of the research and the analysis of 3.000 questionnaires collected from pupils in 125 classes at 45 schools in Austria. Results were presented at the 6th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology in 2006 and in a forthcoming publication in a book edited by the international project consortium. (Total budget: 110.000 €).
 

  •    A European Evaluation Framework for the Design of Secure Urban Environments

Günter Stummvoll contributed to the AGIS 2003 project “A European Evaluation Framework for the Design of Secure Urban Environments”. It was the aim of the European Framework to develop guidelines for product- and public designers, manufacturers and developers on how to integrate considerations of crime prevention in the development phase. Partners in that project had to test the guidelines in a professional environment in their countries. Günter Stummvoll conducted interviews with representatives of the Vienna City Council and landscaping architects who were responsible for the gender-sensitive re-development of a public park in Vienna.
 

  •    Design Against Crime – Xchange : Developing the Secured By Design European Exchange Tool

Most recently Günter Stummvoll is involved in a follow-up AGIS project "Xchange aimed to promote the exchange of best practice in design-led crime prevention across borders, provides a practical approach to addressing fear of crime, engages design and planning professionals and enables innovative, design-led crime prevention appropriate to different European contexts (funded by AGIS in the 7th EU Framework Programme). 
 

  •    Policing in Vienna

The project focussed on crime prevention strategies in the Vienna police in Austria. The different concepts of crime prevention – developmental prevention (early intervention), community crime prevention, social integration measures, structural improvement of the social economy – were linked with organisational and administrative policies in the Vienna police force. Günter Stummvoll has analysed the conditions of implementation of the concepts of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention, and studied the self-understanding and practice of contact-officers in the police. The results showed the following: The task of crime prevention within the police force is divided between a particular civil advisory service, giving information on protection against burglary, domestic violence, sexual harassment and (drug) addiction, and the pro-active work of police officers on duty. Whereas the police advisory service is organised as a central contact point with an office in the city of Vienna and other cities in Austria, the practice of police officers was found to be rather unsystematic, informal and less prestigious than arresting criminals. Also crime prevention work cannot be evaluated like the conventional police work which leads to the fact that prevention is considered a sideline job of police officers. Despite the official directions in the police law, community crime prevention remains therefore an unsystematic practice in the Vienna police.