Growing up in a high crime area: A thematic approach to perceived reasons for local high crime

The present study aimed to qualitatively explore male participants’ perceptions of growing up in high crime areas and their perceived reasons for local crime. Previous research has found that the public tend to deem the causes of crime as external rather than individual factors (Jones and Levi 1987; Campbell and Muncer 1990; Gabbidon and Boisvert 2011). However, previous public perception research is neglected, thus their experiences have been somewhat disregarded. Seven male participants aged 18-24 years old took part in a semi-structured interview. A thematic analysis informed from Braun and Clarke (2006) was used to generate themes. The five key themes were: ‘relationships’, ‘environmental factors’, ‘individual factors’, ‘cycle of crime’ and ‘prevention’. The key themes generated sub-themes in order to gain full comprehension of the themes. The qualitative method provides an updated and altered insight into perceptions of crime causation and could be used in the future to gain a better understanding of crime causation. Furthermore, it may be applicable to crime prevention and reduction techniques