This study aims to provide answers to the following questions: Do you feel safe at Historic Centre of Porto (HCP)? Do you think that crime is increasing? What are the most and less frequent crimes? And the most feared crimes? What conditions promote criminal occurrences? What incivilities occur at HCP? What measures can be taken to increase security? What variables are related to the perception of insecurity? Through the application of the Diagnosis of Local Security Questionnaire, 554 participants that attended HCP were assessed (58.5% women, mean age = 43.82). One in five participants reported feelings of insecurity due to the presence of crime/danger. Robbery, theft, and drugs traffic were perceived as the most common crimes; participants were especially fearful about robbery and theft. Nationality, education, criminal variables, adequacy and satisfaction with policing, seek for formal support, and years living/studying/working at HCP were variables related to perception of (in)security. Este estudio tiene como objetivo proporcionar respuesta a las siguientes preguntas: ¿se siente seguro en el Centro Histórico de Oporto (CHO)?, ¿cree que la delincuencia está aumentando?, ¿cuáles son los delitos más y menos frecuentes?, ¿y los crímenes más temidos?, ¿qué condiciones fomentan los actos delictivos?, ¿qué faltas de civismo ocurren en el CHO?, ¿qué medidas se podrían tomar para aumentar la seguridad?, ¿qué variables están relacionadas con la percepción de inseguridad? Mediante la aplicación del Cuestionario de Diagnóstico de Seguridad Local se evaluó a 554 participantes que asistieron al CHO (58.5% mujeres, edad media 43.82). Uno de cada cinco participantes manifestó sensación de inseguridad debido a la presencia de delitos/peligro. El robo, el hurto y el tráfico de drogas se percibían como los delitos más comunes; los participantes temían principalmente el robo y el hurto. La nacionalidad, la educación, las variables penales, la adecuación y la satisfacción con el trabajo policial, la búsqueda de apoyo formal y los años de vida/estudio/trabajo en el CHO fueron variables relacionadas con la percepción de (in)seguridad.

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.

This article describes a curated dataset entitled “Looking at Crime: Communities and Physical Spaces”, which comprises data from different sources, namely Diagnosis of Local Security (DLS), Diagnosis of School Environment (DSE) and observation of physical spaces. The main topic covered was crime and related variables at the Historic Centre of Porto (HCP), a well-known urban area located in the North of Portugal. It is currently attended by inhabitants, workers, students and tourists. This dataset includes i) data from two different self-reports: i.1) demographics, perception of (in)security, victimization, social control and community cohesion obtained through an inquiry applied to the adult community; and i.2) data from school climate and students behavioural problems, which may be seen as risk factors for juvenile delinquency, collected through a web-survey applied to school personnel; and ii) data from observation of physical spaces, attending to the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles. The dataset allows descriptive and inferential statistical analyses, being useful for students, academics, stakeholders, police forces and policy-makers, to better understand crime and its related variables, forecast criminal incidents, and further develop associated preventive and intervention programmes.

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.