Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/224217
14 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 8 DECEMBER 2013 2013 Bormla: anatomy A new study indentifies all the usual suspects behind Cospicua's perceived notoriety when it comes to criminal and anti-social behavour... but also reveals little known aspects of the social underbelly of a once thriving but now depressed harbour city. RAPHAEL VASSALO on Bormla's deceptive crime profile TELEVISION serials such as CSI have triggered an interest in the science of crime scene investigation. But what happens when the 'crime scene' takes the form of an entire town? A recent study released by the University of Malta's criminology department – full name: 'Community Perceptions of Criminality: The Case of the Maltese Walled City of Bormla' sets out to do precisely this, focusing exclusively on residents' perceptions of criminality in one of the oldest of the inner harbour cities, and arguably one of Malta's more depressed suburbian areas to boot. Why Bormla, one may well ask? According to the authors – Dr JosAnn Cutajar, Prof. Saviour Formosa and Dr Trevor Calafato – because "this town is often associated by the Maltese general public with crime since a substantial number of convicted persons come from this area." Adopting the clinical approach you'd expect from a crime scene investigation, they proceed to analyse the area's social demographics and population trends, as well as the reactions of its inhabitants to how they are perceived by others. The results at a glance seem to confirm many existing perceptions, not just about the city in question but also about the nature of crime itself. Space and crime Among the factors contributing to a disproportionally high crime rate in this locality – though not the highest: Bormla actually places fifth in the 'most wanted' list of Malta's crime spots, after St Julian's, Sliema, St Paul's Bay and Valletta – you will find all the usual suspects: illiteracy, unemployment, poverty, high population turnover, high incidence of problem drug use, broken homes, heavy dependence on state welfare and relative police inaction when confronted with reports, among others. Nonetheless the same study also 'Under the microscope, Bormla's crime profile seems to be surprisingly localised for such a small city' points towards complications when it comes to accurately assessing the degree of criminality associated with any one locality. For one thing it is unclear what proportion of the reported crimes (which in turn do not give a clear picture of the actual extent of crime) can be attributed to long-term residents of the city itself, and how much can be laid at the door of 'visitors' who avail of existing facilities in the area, such as a local homeless shelter. Moreover, the study also reveals the intriguing detail that different lo- calities are prone not only to different levels of crime, but also to different types of offences... in categories that may sometimes be skewed on account of the locality's unique idiosyncrasies. For instance: it transpires that Bormla registers a higher rate of 'crime against the person' than the national average; but scores low in the much more widespread category of 'crime against property'. This seemingly dramatic detail calls to mind violent crime of the 'drive-by shooting' variety one associates with large cities. Under scrutiny, however, these statistics can be seen to be inflated by a higher incidence of domestic crime in Bormla than elsewhere: notably neglect of children, which may at times take the less dramatic form of missing out on child support payments. On the flipside, it also turns out that areas of high crime concentration in Bormla cover a proportionally much higher percentage of the city's entire footprint than other localities, where crime tends to be more localised (in St Julian's, for instance, the vast majority of reported crimes occur in one neighbourhood: Paceville). This in turn suggests that unlike other recognised hotspots, the factors contributing to Bormla's high crime rate are more evenly distributed throughout the city than elsewhere: with the worrying implication that poverty, illiteracy and unemployment are likewise more prevalent among the wider population. A 'social dump site' All this seems to cement the perception of Bormla as a social dumping site: which the same study suggests is confirmed even by the residents themselves. "Bormla residents tend to attribute crime to the presence of 'outsiders,' namely, people who have ended up living in Bormla either because they were sent there by the social housing authorities or because they could not afford to rent accommodation elsewhere. They believe that a stop to 'social dumping' by the local authorities would help to minimise this crime rate." Of interest to the sociologist are the suggested reasons for Bormla's current status: which can be tied to much larger developments affecting the country as a whole, including the dramatic changes in Malta's economic infrastructure in the mid-to late-20th century. One early reason for the prevalence of cheap social housing in the area was purely pragmatic: much of Bormla was levelled by Luftwaffe bombs during WW2, and large-scale housing projects were urgently required in the years that followed. The war is cited for another of the city's population trends, too. Having been the most heavily bombed part of Malta owing to its dockyard facilities, much of its original population moved out to safer areas for the duration of the blitz. "Those who moved out of the area tended to be families with the material means to find alternative shelter elsewhere," the study notes. "A good portion of these wartime refugees did not return after the war." Apart from an intense population upheaval which robbed the once thriving harbour town – described as 'Malta's industrial hub' before the war – of its more affluent population, the blitz also contributed to a higher level of vacant, abandoned and generally derelict buildings in Bormla than other areas... providing ample space for criminality to occur. A geographical evaluation of the city's internal crime hotspots appears to confirm this perception: "Within multi-purpose areas, crime rates were perceived to be higher in areas with a higher rate of abandoned houses, and near blocks in social housing estates." Collective efficacy Interestingly, the concentration of social housing seems to affect crime rates in other, less expected ways too. One factor identified by the researchers is a lack of what they term 'collective efficacy': defined as "a