Criminology

Although currently living in Jamaica, I am a retired Canadian who spent most of his adult life in Toronto, a city with a population of well over two million. I am not familiar with the Australian experience, but Torontos crime rate tends to be much lower than American cities of comparable size. For example the homicide rate is usually about 60 per year. However within Toronto there are definitely areas with a greater crime problem than others but they are not necessarily those closest to the center of the city. In this sense I would tend to agree with your stated observation about Sydney more than the hypotheses of Shaw that the most problem area are closer to the city center because this is the oldest part of the city and largely inhabited by poor immigrants and therefore more prone to social disorganization. Just before emigrating I worked as a security guard in a middle class condo near the city center. The immediate area was rundown and afflicted by crime

Ranging from bike thefts and vandalism to drug dealing. However just  a few blocks away many old houses have been  bought up and refurbished  and this is now a fairly affluent, trendy area called Cabbagetown were crime rates have significantly decreased. On the other hand in northwest Toronto far from the city center there is a relatively poor, largely immigrant populated area called the Jane-Finch corridor where crime rates are high compared to the city average. Therefore in summary while I would agree that poor and often immigrant populated districts tend to suffer from higher crime rates, based on my experience in Toronto these are not necessarily geographically situated near the city core.