ABSTRACT
In this chapter we examine aspects of urban criminology that focus on the formal and informal economic role of cities and how these relate to crime and other harmful practices. Beginning with the historical relationship that exists between cities and markets, the chapter considers what we call the criminal economy of cities, for example shedding light on how property markets can provide a source of investment for the profits gained from the trade of illegal or counterfeit goods and services, the illicit trade of legal commodities and flows of investment from criminal organisations seeking to buy legitimate assets. The tangled, blurred relationship between the upperworlds and underworlds of urban economies is related to globalisation and the organisational role that many global cities now play in the global marketplace. This transformation of function of cities in the global economy is traced back to the financial restructuring of the mid-1970s and early 1980s and the subsequent rise of market-oriented ideologies. A crucial aspect of neoliberal cities has been the growth of informal economies and survival circuits alongside the lure of their financialised economies. The significance of gender and migration is seen as critical to our understanding of the kinds of social solidarities formed in these city contexts. Finally, the chapter analyses the city as a site of cultural production and commodification.
