Geographies of crime and public policy

This research project provides an opportunity to explore and advance spatial criminology in Czechia. We know the crime clusters in time and space, therefore they can be targeted by place-based crime prevention strategies and policies. Traditional focus on spatial and temporal patterns of crime within cities has been increasingly linked to studies on police demand, public safety and prevention tools applied in urban space. Only recently, detailed data on crime became available for researchers and policy makers. The PhD project can use open data on crime provided by Czech police or detailed crime data with GPS coordinates, which are available to all cities and municipalities on request. Thus, pilot studies on crime prevention and field research experiments with local stakeholders are enabled. The research activities should be focused on a) criminological theory, b) crime data analysis, c) crime prevention praxis and evaluation or d) related case studies.

  • Type: General
  • Supervisor: Martin Šimon
  • Programme: Social Geography and Regional Development
  • Duration: 4 years
  • Start date: 1st October 2023
  • Application deadline: 30th April 2023 (consulting with the tutor in advance is strongly recommended)
  • Funding: Scholarship 10 500 CZK per month (+ additional 2.000 CZK once the doctoral examination is successfully passed); PhD scholarship at the Urban and Regional Laboratory is often connected to partial employment with projects of pure and applied research.