This study investigates the cinematic representation of city crime transactions in Chicago in the 1980s. The narrative nature of cinema provides an imaginative context for interpreting the physical and nonphysical dimensions of urban crimes. From a critical interpretive position, based on Peirce's semiotics, this study uses “urban cinesemiotics” as the method to select image signs, identify their associated Chicagoan objects, and interpret their design-oriented meaning. The theoretical roots of crime prevention through environmental design constitute the basis for the interpretation of movies. A total of 27 crime-related scenes from 9 Chicagoan movies made in the 1980s illustrate that most urban settings suffer from the lack of crime-preventive environmental design. In particular, natural surveillance (eyes on the street), encounter and enclosure, and border vacuums are major environmental factors that affect urban crimes in Chicago. Some crime scenes also depict why environmental design cannot influence individuals' criminal intentions necessarily nor can they solve urban safety single-handedly.

本研究调查了 1980 年代芝加哥城市犯罪交易的电影表现。电影的叙事性质为解释城市犯罪的物理和非物理维度提供了一个富有想象力的背景。本研究从批判性的解释立场出发，基于 Peirce 的符号学，使用“城市电影符号学”作为选择图像符号、识别其相关芝加哥对象并解释其设计导向意义的方法。通过环境设计预防犯罪的理论根源构成了电影解读的基础。1980 年代制作的 9 部芝加哥电影中的 27 个与犯罪相关的场景表明，大多数城市环境都缺乏预防犯罪的环境设计。特别是自然监视（街道上的眼睛），遭遇和封闭以及边境真空是影响芝加哥城市犯罪的主要环境因素。一些犯罪现场也描述了为什么环境设计不能必然影响个人的犯罪意图，也不能单枪匹马地解决城市安全问题。