Investigation of relationship between crime and space: Case of Düzce

Architectural design is a complex process that progresses from abstract thought to concrete design. Space syntax, an urban research paradigm that reveals people's intuitive and abstract perceptions of space in a robust mathematical way, explores how space represents its social characteristics. In morphological studies, analysis of differences in the man-made environment, rather than intuitive explanations, requires an understanding of the relational or configurational nature of the particular spatial system. Spatial syntax is an approach developed to analyze these spatial configurations. This study, which focuses on spatial morphology, puts forward the concept of "spatial crime" and examines the relations of spaces within themselves, with each other and with human behavior in the light of this concept. The unequal spatial distribution of crime makes it an ideal candidate for analysis within this sociological framework: crime is universal but spatially concentrated; it targets everyone, but not everyone equally. In this context, the study aims to question the role of spaces in the urban fabric by revealing their invisible features and to discuss the relationship with crime as a result of the effect of different spatial setups on human behavior. The research method of the study is based on space syntax analysis. In this study, the central quarters of the city of Duzce have been chosen as a case study, focusing on the street texture in the urban environment, which presents the fictional importance of the spaces with the help of space syntax theory and quantitative analysis method. In this study area, connectivity, mean depth, integration, choice, and intelligibility analyzes were performed with the data transferred to the Depthmap software within the scope of space syntax analysis. In addition, the study area was analyzed by urban morphology parameters. With the help of the values reached, the spatial relations that differed were determined and the effect on the space set up and the meaning of the space was discussed. When the results are examined, how the change of spatial set up within the scope of space morphology affects the use of space, its meaning, and its position in the whole of urban relations; thus, it has been seen that there is a strong relationship with the potential of crime. It has been shown that the space syntax method has succeeded in establishing a connection between science and design by transferring science-based knowledge to the design process and producing graphical and mathematical data that the designer can use while testing design proposals.