Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of community organisation as part of the systemic model. Based on the systemic model of community crime, it is perceived that community networks are negatively correlated with victimisation. The authors consider an alternative interpretation, suggesting that these conceptual relationships can run opposite to the directions shown in the systemic model. The crime rate itself may change residents’ perception of neighbouring behaviour and informal control. Design/methodology/approach – This hypothesis is tested using a multigroup analysis of the community organisation across a sample of victims and non-victims in a Malaysian neighbourhood. Findings – The authors find that property crime affects ethnic relations among the residents, where the non-victims perceived higher levels of ethnic relationships compared with the victims. The results show that configural and metric invariance are fully supported, while scalar and structural invariance were partially supported, suggesting that the items measured may be robust across cultures and that the factor loadings appeared to be equivalent across victims and non-victims. Non-victims perceived significantly higher informal control and closer ethnic relations than victims. Originality/value – The paper provides a new direction of the systemic model, whereby victimisation could affect residents’ size of friendship networks and perception informal control.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to explore the barriers to the implementation of city development strategy (CDS) to achieve the goals in Iranian cities which have experienced rapid uncontrolled growth in recent decades. As comprehensive planning method has failed to tackle the challenges facing the cities, various recommendations have been made to employ the CDS as a successful method based on strategic urban planning to develop Iranian cities. Design/methodology/approach – This study is qualitatively conducted based on the primary and secondary data in which the primary data were obtained from 11 semi-structured interviews, while the secondary data were collected through a review of international theoretical studies, Iranian experimental research and reports. Findings – The findings of this study indicate five major barriers to the implementation of the Iranian urban planning process based on the CDS. These comprise the centralization of urban planning structure, coordination and relationship of agencies, financial resources, related laws and regulations and public participation. Originality/value – This study develops a compelling argument that what is missing from research on CDS is an examination of the potential barriers of CDS implementation, particularly in Iranian cities.

There is continuous debate on the impact of house quality on residents’ health and well-being. Good living environment improves health, and fear of crime is recognised as a mediator in the relationship between physical environment and health. Since minimal studies have investigated the relationship, this study aims to examine the impact of the house quality on fear of crime and health. A total of 230 households from a residential neighbourhood in Malaysia participated in the study. Using structural equation modelling, the findings indicate that housing quality and fear of crime can account for a proportion of the variance in residents’ self-rated health. However, there is no significant relationship between housing quality and fear of crime. Results also show that fear of crime does not mediate the relationship between housing quality and health. This study suggests that the environment-fear relationship should be re-examined theoretically.