ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the feasibility of applying a public-health approach to the evaluation of such urban upgrading interventions in the context of Cape Town's township areas. It evaluates urban upgrading programmes in three Cape Town communities: Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and Nyanga. The police and the courts are the standard tools employed by the state to control crime and violence. Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading is only one of many governmental and non-governmental agencies that have the goal of improving the physical and social environment in Cape Town's low-income communities. The distribution of interpersonal violence there follows the geography of inequality, coinciding with differences in income and living standards: it is chiefly concentrated in the predominantly black and coloured townships. Alcohol has long been known as a risk factor for interpersonal violence. It was strongly implicated as a contributory factor to violence in the community survey; and, in health facilities, alcohol use was reported in over half of all violent injuries.
