Tourism and Crime: Key Themes

Edited By David Botterill and Trevor Jones. Goodfellow

Publishers Ltd. <www.goodfellowpublishers.com> 2010, vii
+ 240pp (figures, tables, index) 39.99 Hbk. ISBN 978-1-
906884-14-7
Paolo Mura
Taylors University Lakeside Campus, Malaysia
The idea that crime is a rather common phenomenon in the tourism experience
has not been denied by tourism scholars. Indeed, in the last thirty years, a number
of studies have focussed on the relationship between tourism and crime (Chesney-
Lind & Lind, 1986; Fujii & Mak, 1980; Jud, 1975). Within the tourism literature,
there has been a growing interest in understanding whether and how increases
in tourist arrivals can be related to higher levels of crime. Moreover, attention
has been paid to tourists experiences of crime, both as victims (Chesney-Lind &
Lind, 1986) and perpetrators of crime (Ryan & Kinder, 1996).
Studies on crime within the tourism literature clearly highlight that tourism
studies and criminology are two related elds of enquiry; yet, surprisingly only
on rare occasions have tourism scholars collaborated with criminologists. On the
contrary, it seems that the two areas of study have developed in isolation from
one another. In this respect, this book is unique because it brings together tourism
scholars, criminologists, and social scientists with diverse backgrounds. The result
is a cohesive and comprehensive piece of work, which encourages a potentially
fruitful dialogue between tourism studies and criminology. The attempt to inte-
grate and bridge the two disciplines is clear from Chapter 1. After a short, yet
insightful, analysis of the key themes in tourism and criminology, the editors
identify areas of overlap between the two elds of enquiry from a conceptual,
methodological, and policy-relevant perspective.
The book is organized into three parts. In Part I, the various types of crime that
tourists may experience on holiday are introduced and discussed. More speci-
cally, in this section Rob Mawby explores tourists experiences of property (Chap-
ter 2) and violent crime (Chapter 3). Mawbys work is followed by Rob Brunts
chapter on tourist victimization (Chapter 3), with a particular emphasis on gay
tourist victimization (Chapter 3). Perhaps the inclusion of up-to-date empirical
data in this section would have offered a more in-depth understanding of tourist
victimization. Despite this, the analysis of the key themes in the research literature
on the victimization of tourists provides a signicant contribution to our knowl-
edge of tourism and crime.
Part II, Tourists as Offenders, is one of the most signicant contributions of-
fered by this book, especially from a methodological perspective. As the authors
note throughout the book, the traditional methods that have been used to explore
crime, mainly based on police statistics and victim surveys, do not always provide an
in-depth understanding of the link between crime and tourism. In contrast, this
section provides a wider spectrum of methodological approaches that are based
on a number of different ontological and epistemological stances. In this respect,
Heather Montgomerys work on child sex tourism (Chapter 5) is a relevant exam-
ple of new methodological approaches to the investigations of crime and tourism.
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 16771678, 2011
Printed in Great Britain
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Her ethnography on child sex tourism highlights the political and personal com-
plexities behind child prostitutes narratives. Similarly, the work presented in
Chapter 7 by Esther Bott on British street workers in Tenerifes timeshare industry
offers a relevant example of this methodological shift. Through a variety of partic-
ipant observation techniques, her study contributes signicantly to understanding
the relationship between tourism and crime. Moreover, Botts reective approach
reminds the reader of the ethical dilemmas that a researcher may encounter while
investigating crime on holiday. Overall, Part II clearly emphasises the need to con-
duct more qualitative research to have an in-depth understanding of the relation-
ship between tourism and crime.
The last part of the book, Part III, offers an overview of the various responses to
tourist-related crime, including the legal issues related to cross-border cooperation
in criminal investigations (Chapter 8 by Toine Spapens); a critical analysis of crime
prevention in late modernity (Chapter 9 by Gordon Hughes); the governance of
security of tourist spaces (Chapter 10 by Trevor Jones); the relationships among
tourist destinations, place image, and fear of crime (Chapter 11 by Martin Selby,
Helen Selby, and David Botterill); and the relationship between crime and dark
tourism (Chapter 12 by John Lennon). Given space restrictions and the complexity
of the various scenarios presented, this part of the book can only touch on the key
themes related to tourism, crime, and policy-related research. However, it suggests
signicant directions for future research on tourism and crime, including a more
in-depth analysis of the concept of fear of crime and the relationship between
fear and risk on holiday.
Overall, the book is well written and well structured. A list of bullet points at the
beginning of each chapter provides a useful overview of the key themes that will be
discussed in every paper. This summary facilitates the understanding of the con-
tent of each chapter and provides a clear structure of the discussion that will fol-
low. Therefore, this book can be recommended to anyone who may be
interested in understanding the relationship between tourism and crime, includ-
ing undergraduate and graduate students. The editors mission to spark a debate
and encourage the two subject communities to explore the interface of tourism
and crime, as stated in Chapter 1, is denitely accomplished.
Paolo Mura: School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts, Taylors University
Lakeside Campus, No. 1 Jalan Taylors, 47500 Subang Jaya, 47500 Malaysia. E-mail
<paolo.mura@taylors.edu.my>
REFERENCES
Chesney-Lind, M., & Lind, I. Y. (1986). Visitors as victims: Crimes against tourists in
Hawaii. Annals of Tourism Research, 13(2), 167191.
Fujii, E. T., & Mak, J. (1980). Tourism and crime: Implications for regional
development policy. Regional Studies, 14, 2736.
Jud, D. G. (1975). Tourism and crime in Mexico. Social Sciences Quarterly, 56(2),
324330.
Ryan, C., & Kinder, R. (1996). Sex, tourism, and sex tourism: Fullling similar
needs? Tourism Management, 17(7), 507518.
Assigned 20 January 2011. Submitted 30 March 2011. Resubmitted 5 April 2011. Accepted 6
April 2011.
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2011.07.011
1678 Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 38 (2011) 16631680