Preponderant Relationships: Violent Crime, Premises Security Litigation, and Low-Income Housing

ABSTRACT

This paper advances knowledge of the ways in which criminological research can assist the courts in rendering legal decisions. To do so, we examine case examples from premises security litigation involving low-income housing developments. We describe the investigative tasks of a premises security lawsuit, address the challenges of examining and explaining a criminal assault, and show how criminological scholarship can point to the importance of place management in suppressing or facilitating crime in low-income housing developments. We examine three preponderant relationships – offender and victim, security standards and proximate causation, and place management and crime opportunities – to provide insight into the translation of criminological knowledge into actionable legal outcomes. We address the nexus of environmental criminology and premises security litigation to strengthen the scientific foundation of criminological research and improve the quality of forensic social scientific research in the legal system.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Steward v. Stratus Security Services, Inc., No. E048630 (Cal. Ct. A Oct. 19, 2010); Kuti v. Sera Sec. Servs., 182 A.D.3d 401, 121 N.Y.S.3d 263 (A Div. 2020); Cullen v. Henry Phipps Plaza E., Inc., 2021 N.Y. Slip Op 30,003 (Sup. Ct. 2021).

² Kline v. 1500 Massachusetts Avenue Apartment Corp., 439 F.2d 477 (D.C. Cir. 1970); Saelzler v. Advanced Group 400, 23 P.3d 1143, 107 Cal. Rptr. 2d 617, 25 Cal. 4th 763 (2001); Jacqueline S. v. City of New York, 81 N.Y.2d 288, 598 N.Y.S.2d 160, 614 N.E.2d 723 (1993); Timberwalk Apartments, Partners, Inc. v. Cain, 972 S.W.2d 749 (Tex. 1998); Leslie G. v. Perry and Associates, 43 Cal. A 4th 472, 50 Cal. Rptr. 2d 785 (Ct. A 1996); Mitchell v. Ridgewood East Apartments, LLC, 205 So. 3d 1069 (Miss. 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kevin Fox Gotham

Kevin Fox Gotham is Professor of Sociology at Tulane University in New Orleans. He has research interests in forensic criminology, place-crime connections, and security management. He is the author or co-author of four books and over 100 articles.

Daniel B. Kennedy

Daniel B. Kennedy is Emeritus Professor at the University of Detroit Mercy. He is an active forensic consultant in litigation involving private security, police and corrections operations at Forensic Criminology Associates of Troy, Michigan.