ABSTRACT
Alongside the rapid physical and economic decline of the ward of Bankhill, has occurred an equally rapid shift in the population’s perception of the level of crime and criminality in the area. Many of the older residents in Bankhili had been witnesses to its rapid decline. More established residents throughout the ward turned again and again to explanations of that decline which were rooted in a loss of community. Local residents felt frustrated in their own attempts to maintain a local sense of community and an added frustration in the lack of support from those agencies which possess some local power. With few public buildings and scattered shopping facilities throughout the ward, the main victims of crime in Bankhill have been its local residents. Younger people in Bankhill, perhaps unsurprisingly, do not express the view that their area is ‘going downhill’ with the same kind of vehemence.
