Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

7
TheTourist and His
Criminal:Patterns
in Street Robbery
Dee Wood Harper
Learning Objectives
■
To learn what criminologists know about robbery in general.
■
To learn what criminologists know about offender motivation.
■
To understand the situational elements of tourist robbery victimization.
■
To understand the behavioral context of tourism as it relates to crime victimization.
■
To understand why tourists may be more vulnerable to street crime than non-
tourists.
Introduction
This chapter describes three interrelated situational elements in the tourist victim
pattern in street robbery: (1) tourist/criminal convergence in space and time;
(2) the physical features of locations where victimization tends to occur; and
(3) the behavioral context of tourism and tourist victimization. Data on street rob-
bery events involving tourists in and around the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) area
of New Orleans in the years 2000 and 2001 provides the empirical basis for this
discussion. The chapter includes a review of relevant criminological and tourism
literature as it relates to crime victimization. Research evidence suggests that being
a tourist creates a contextual weakness that places the tourist at greater vulnerabil-
ity of victimization. Looking at the tourist as a special victim type highlights the
contribution made by the victims to their victimization, perhaps more so than
would be the case in other victimization contexts. The status and role of tourists
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and their behavior place them outside the bounds of the mundane and create a spe-
cial relationship with the host location and host population. While their relation-
ship with the actors in the institutionalized tourist settings is standardized and for
the most part legitimate, their search for the authentic and backstage experiences
brings them into contact with an altogether different set of actors who may be in a
position to exploit them.