This paper analyses the rise of a new kind of urban citizenship in the context of the urban crisis of the 1980s: the vigilant citizen, characterized by a view of citizens as possible victims, who assume and are called upon to take responsibility for social safety. Top-down policy explanations insufficiently clarify why the polarized debate over urban petty crime developed into a consensus by the mid-1980s. Tying in with recent trends in urban police history, this paper shows the diversity of bottom-up actors in Amsterdam that helped to, sometimes unintentionally, further a communitarian “social safety” agenda: vigilantes and victim-support groups, the former based in more conservative circles, the latter partly inspired by women advocacy groups. These actors entered into a sometimes-tense dynamic with the police and municipality, which took up the challenge of providing victim support and of educating the public for neighborhood prevention. This slowly yielded results.

本文分析了在1980年代的城市危机背景下一种新型的城市公民身份的崛起：保持警惕的公民，其特征是将公民视为可能的受害者，他们承担并被要求承担社会安全责任。自上而下的政策解释不足以阐明为什么在1980年代中期，关于城市小规模犯罪的两极分化辩论已形成共识。结合城市警察历史的最新趋势，本文显示了阿姆斯特丹自下而上的行动者的多样性，这有助于有时甚至无意地促进了社群主义的“社会安全”议程：治安维持者和受害者支持团体，前者基于保守派人士，后者在一定程度上受到了妇女倡导团体的启发。这些行为者与警察和市政当局之间有时充满紧张气氛，这就面临了提供受害者支持和教育公众预防邻里的挑战。这慢慢产生了结果。