This paper investigates crime and the night-time economy (NTE) associated with an entertainment district in an Australian capital city. It discusses the concept of the ‘environmental backcloth’ (Brantingham and Brantinham, 1993) to this area as important contextual background to some of the contemporary crime problems.

This paper explores crime in Northbridge entertainment district in Perth, Western Australia and highlights how the legacy of governance can operate counter-intuitively, to foster crime precipitators, which can increase opportunities for crime.