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CJE3444
Crime Prevention
Dr. Elizabeth C. Buchholz
Chapter 4: The Physical Environment & Crime
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Modifying the physical environment is one of the most well-know approaches in primary
prevention.
CPTED
 Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)
o Efforts to alter the physical design of an area or location to impact crime
o “The proper use and effective design of the built environment can lead to a reduction
in the incidence and fear of crime, and an improvement in the quality of life (Jeffrey,
1971).”
CPTED
 CPTED grew out of many theories, most notably:
o Defensible space (Newman, 1972)
 Crime is inhibited “by creating a physical expression of a social fabric which
defends itself”
 Physical characteristics of an area can influence the behavior of both
residents and potential offenders
Defensible Space - CPTED
 Newman (1972) argues that defensible space can be accomplished through physical design
actions which include:
o Door & window placement for visibility
o Limited entrances
o Lighting
o Establishment of common areas for residents
o Additional elements which impact community behavior
CPTED
 Four goals:
o Access
o Surveillance
o Activity Support
o Motivational Reinforcement
CPTED
CPTED
 CPTED is similar to defensible space, however, the theory rests on the assumption that
potential offenders are influenced by a cost/benefit analysis referred as OTREP (Kaplan,
1978)
o Opportunity
o Target
o Risk
o Effort
o Payoff
 When high risk is associated with low reward, a rational criminal will choose a different
target.
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Manipulating physical design features may be one way to bring about higher costs relative to
benefits.
CPTED
 Defensible Space (cont.)
o 4 elements of defensible space1. Territoriality
2. Natural surveillance
3. Image
4. Milieu
 CPTED adds other elements to defensible space
o Access control
o Activity support
o Target hardening
CPTED
 Additional theories:
o Broken Windows Theory (Wilson, 1980s)
Chicago’s Englewood
CPTED
 Territoriality
o refers to the ability and desire of legitimate users of an area to lay claim to the area
o residents/owners/legitimate users (non-offenders), as well as the potential offenders,
recognize the "ownership" of the territory and make decisions about actions with that
knowledge
o Symbolic territoriality—refers to things such as signs, landscaping, or other items that
signal a change in ownership or area
o Real territoriality—engendered by walls, fences, gates, or other items that place a
physical barrier in front of people
CPTED
 Access Control and Target Hardening
o Access control seeks to allow only those persons who have legitimate business in an
area to enter
 reduces the opportunity for crime by increasing the effort needed to enter and
exit a building or area
 controlling access and egress to an area limits its permeability
o Target hardening efforts are those that make potential criminal targets more
difficult to victimize
 use and/or installation of locks, bars on windows, unbreakable glass, intruder
alarms, fences, safes, and other devices
CPTED
Access Control and Target Hardening
 it is possible to design products in ways that make them more difficult targets
o prime example of this approach in target hardening is the incorporation of steering
column locks in automobiles
 access control/target hardening measures will not eliminate crime
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any form of access control or target hardening can be overcome by a clever and persistent
criminal
Access Controls
Target Hardening
 Make potential criminal targets more difficult to victimize
 Regulating who enters and how people enter your dwelling.
Name a few ways we can do this???
Access Controls
• Placing identifying marks on personal property
Makes stolen good more difficult to fence and easier to identify and return to victims
• Warning signs
• Closed-circuit TV cameras
• Lighting
Access Controls
• Eliminate access to the roof
• Lighting
• Motion sensors
• Alarms
• Low cut bushes
• Single clear entry points
• Locking gates
• Low or picket fences to promote neighborhood surveillance
Surveillance
CPTED
• Surveillance
o any action that increases the chance that offenders will be observed
o actions that enhance observation.
o natural surveillance—where residents and legitimate users have the ability to see
and observe what is taking place around them without taking special measures
(also called informal surveillance)
o formal or organized surveillance—the use of guards or employees specifically
tasked with watching for offending
o mechanical surveillance —utilizes cameras or other devices to observe activities,
or lights to simply increase the ability of people to see what is taking place
Surveillance
Name a few of these???
Surveillance
• Windows facing high traffic areas
• Landscape design
• Use lighting, especially natural light to your advantage
• Avoid garages in dark alleys
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CCTV
Meet regularly with neighbors AND KNOW them.
CPTED
• Activity Support and Motivation Reinforcement
o relate to the building of a community atmosphere
o involve encouraging law-abiding use of the community and area
o the ability to recognize neighbors and identify needs of the community should
enhance social cohesion among residents and contribute to a communal
atmosphere that works to eliminate crime and other common problems
Activity Support
• Functions that enhance interaction with citizens
• Create a communal atmosphere
• Interaction between legitimate users enables residents to distinguish legitimate users from
strangers
• Also generated by directly recruiting residents for anti-crime activities or other
societal/community issues
Activity Support
Any ideas????
Activity Support
• Street fairs
• Open houses
• Community and neighborhood watch programs
• School functions
• Parades
• Business sales
• Sporting events
• Other public functions
Motivation and Reinforcement
• Establish a sense of ownership and territory
• Take pride in an area (broken windows)
Examples???
Motivation and Reinforcement
• Avoid bars, Razor wire, Other negative prevention methods
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Private property signs
Maintain a positive appearance
Scheduling common area events
Refreshments in parks and public areas to promote gathering
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CPTED
Image and Milieu
• Image—the outward appearance of an area or property as cared for by those who belong in
the area
o communicates to potential offenders that there are concerned citizens watching over
the area
• Milieu—prevention is enhanced if the surrounding area is also well cared for and maintained,
and it appears that there is little crime in those neighboring areas
o building homes, businesses, or new communities within an already low-crime area
will protect the new location
CPTED
Conflicts
• surveillance, territoriality, and access control have the potential of cancelling out one another
• surveillance promotes the need for citizens to be able to observe behavior and take action
• territoriality, particularly by erecting walls, fences, or other structures, can impede natural
surveillance
• access control and target hardening efforts can lead to the building of fortresses around
individuals and areas
o keep people from participating in community and neighborhood activities, thus
reducing activity support
IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
• Most efforts have taken place with little or no long-range planning and only intermittent
government organization and support
• Secured By Design (SBD) program
o Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in England
o provides architectural and security assistance to any agency requesting its input
o 14 Design Guides available to assist in building safe and secure homes, facilities, and
locations
o 6 Core Principles that closely align with the ideas of defensible space, including
natural surveillance and access control
IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
• 1998 Crime and Disorder Act (CDA) in the United Kingdom
o mandated the cooperation of many agencies in addressing crime problems
o included mandate for plans to rely on architects and planners in efforts to design out
crime
• New Zealand has implemented national guidelines for construction and design to inhibit
crime
o promote the incorporation of CPTED principles
Impact of Physical Design
• Rubenstein et al. (1980) outlines 3 types of changes or effects that appear in analyses of crime
prevention:
Type 1 - Those that measure the direct impact of physical design features
Locks, lights, fences
Type 2 - The impact of the physical design on a variety of intervening factors
Attitudes of legitimate users about their community
Feelings of territoriality
Efforts of community members to combat crime
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Improved community atmosphere
Type 3 - The direct effect of the intervening factors on crime and the indirect influence of
physical design on crime through the intervening factors
Impact of Physical Design
THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL DESIGN
Lighting
• Pease (1999) suggests that lighting may impact crime through various mechanisms:
o may lead to increased outdoor activity and, in turn, greater surveillance
o may enhance the ability to detect a crime in progress or identify an offender
o may have a deterrent impact, which may make potential offenders choose less welllighted areas for their crimes
• Typical research on the impact of lights contrasts criminal activity in an area that has received
new lights with areas that do not
THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL DESIGN
Lighting (cont.)
• studies find a positive impact of lighting on reduced crime
• some evidence of reduced fear of crime
• stronger impact found in U.K. studies than in U.S.
• improved lighting schemes remain popular
o the ability to see better makes people feel safer
Lighting
Research is……..
Inconsistent at best!!!!
However, even though crime rates fail to decrease for some categories, the reduction of “fear” of
crime is seen as a positive.
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL DESIGN
CCTV
• Research on CCTV has grown tremendously in recent years, particularly in the United
Kingdom
• CCTV used in neighborhoods, business areas, car parks, etc.
o studies in city centers reveal small but insignificant reductions in crime
o public housing evaluations reveal similar small, non-significant reductions in crime
o public transportation settings find sizable reductions in crime, although statistically
insignificant
o CCTV in car parks have the only significant reductions in crime
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
Pros
• Immediate reduction in crime rates
• Reduced fear
• Apprehension of criminals increase
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Cons
• Limits on privacy
• Crime reduction is short-lived
• Displacement of crime
• Many criminals only view CCTV as an obstacle and not as a deterrent
THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL DESIGN
Surveillability
Determined by a wide range of factors beyond lighting
Fisher and Nasar (1992) note the physical design impact on prospect, refuge, and escape
Surveillability
• Prospect
Ability of individuals to see an area
• Refuge
Presence or absence of concealment in which offenders could hide from potential victims
• Escape
Ability of both offenders and victims to escape for an area before and/or after an offense
(Fisher and Nasar, 1993)
Surveillability
• Areas of increased concealment (refuge), blocked prospect, and limited escape elicit greater
fear.
• People make assessments of their surroundings and respond to the potential danger and fear
they interpret in different situations.
Property Identification Programs
• Operation Identification - undertaken at most major universities
o few programs are able to entice widespread participation
o evaluation in England found significant impact on burglary
Property Identification Programs
• Tagging vehicles - parking stickers, license plates, and reduced driving hours is a new
approach
• Major focus is to make disposing of stolen goods more difficult
• Inconsistent at best due low participation rate
Additional Methods
• Alarms
o Strong deterrent to household burglary
• Fencing
THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL DESIGN
Locks, Doors, and Related Access Factors
• Make entry more difficult
• Solid doors, deadbolt locks, unbreakable glass lead to decline in the level of burglary
• Study of burglars shows they list the type of windows and locks as one influence on their
decisionmaking
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THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL DESIGN
Area Permeability
• Establishment of dead-end streets, cul-de-sacs, one-way streets, alley gating, and closing
streets
o less crime on private streets and the fear of crime was lower among subjects living on
those streets
o more interaction between the residents living on these private streets
o more accessible streets experience higher rates of burglary
• Alley gating has an impact independent of other crime prevention activities
Additional Methods
• Street Design
Affects crime through the level of accessibility potential offenders have to an area
• Newman & Wayne (1997) found private streets with cul-de-sacs owned and maintained by
residents had less crime and lower fear of crime
Landscaping
Gates
Entranceway
More interaction between residents
• Operation cul-de-sac (1990s LA) - Use of road blocks to create cul-de-sacs that reduced
access, decreased gang activity, homicides, and violence and increased when removed years
later
Physical Design of Neighborhoods
• Public Housing
Certain designs negate to build a sense of community, lay claim to an area (territoriality),
present a sense of safety (image), or allow surveillance
• Low crime areas
Single-family dwellings
Few major through streets
Few vacant lots
Predominantly residential
Bound by other residential areas
Uniform building setbacks
Private parking
Challenging Defensible Space
• Proper design by itself is no guarantee for crime prevention
• Some prevention methods (trash cans and fencing) produce additional hiding spaces
• Building layout can be limited by previous structures, land owned, and can be confusing to
new residents.
Physical Design of Neighborhoods
• Look at area-wide changes (housing areas, neighborhoods, business districts)
o accessibility and building size have direct effects on burglary and fear of crime
• North Asylum Hill area of Hartford, Connecticut
o changes in street patterns, landscaping, neighborhood police patrols, and increased
citizen organization
o creation of cul-de-sacs, the elimination of through streets, creating one-way streets,
and the narrowing of street openings
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great decreases in both burglary and robbery as compared to control areas, but shortlived
Physical Design of Neighborhoods
• Union Avenue Corridor (UAC) of Portland, Oregon
o commercial strip approximately 3.5 miles long and four blocks wide
o improved street lighting and street appearance, changed traffic patterns, provided offstreet parking, established business and neighborhood groups, and used promotional
events
o official measures of robbery and commercial burglary declined
o no changes in victimization data
o customers were more fearful at night, and the elderly were more fearful
Physical Design of Neighborhoods
• Reducing Burglary Initiative (RBI) in U.K.
o local communities to identify the causes of the burglary problems and to develop
interventions
o physical design changes, such as target hardening, the installation of alley gates,
lighting improvements, neighborhood watch, intensive police crackdowns, and
property marking
o In 40 out of 55 RBI evaluations, the burglary rates fell relative to the control areas
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Secure By Design (SBD)
o significant reduction in crime at the sites that were refurbished following the SBD
principles
A Challenge to Defensible Space
Sally E. Merry (1981)
• observation study of a single public housing project that seemed to conform to good
defensible space design
• interviews, observation, and official crime figures
• physical design features failed to have any effect on crime or the residents’ feelings of safety
• physical design did not increase interaction between residents and residents rarely intervened
• an area may be defensible but undefended
2nd Generation CPTED
• CPTED needs to explicitly look beyond simple physical design
• CPTED needs to consider the social makeup of areas/neighborhoods
• focus on social capital and social cohesion
• consider social cohesion, neighborhood/community culture, and other social factors in
eliciting crime prevention action
• 2nd Generation CPTED seeks to directly enhance the intervening factors need to prevent
crime
Product Design and CPTED
• Physically designing products in ways that protect them from theft or being used in other
offenses
• Hot products—products that lend themselves to crime
Product Design and CPTED
• Hot products, which are highly targeted by thieves, may be characterized by being CRAVED
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Products which lend themselves to crime
o Concealable
o Removable
o Available
o Valuable
o Enjoyable
o Disposable
Additional Concepts with CPTED
• Products and Misdeeds and Security Approach
o Ekblom (2008) suggested it is possible to make products inherently secure
o The design of a product either makes the product a viable target for an offense, or the
product facilitates some other offense
o Make them less attractive or distinctive, thus less targeted
o Design in such a way to protect other property
Chairs which can secure purses from theft
Additional Concepts with CPTED
• Products and Misdeeds and Security Approach
o Restrict offender access to the target or tools used to target a product
Security cables or alarms
Safes or access control
Ink tags on clothing
Additional Concepts with CPTED
Changes made to automobiles
 Ignition and steer column locks
 Alarms
 Locator devices
 Stronger door locks
 Marking of parts with identification numbers
 Lockable gas caps
 Security coded radios
 Armor plating, ram bars
PRODUCT DESIGN
 Other examples of product design:
o removable radios
o large packaging for small items
o stronger purse straps
o smart guns
o Caller ID
 Problems
o designers not trained in crime prevention
o consumers don’t understand design
o problem with aesthetic features
o increased costs
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INCIVILITY, DISORDER, AND CRIME
 Question of the degree to which signs of disorder may actively promote criminal activity
o physical disorder—broken windows, abandoned buildings, vacant lots, deteriorating
buildings, litter, vandalism, and graffiti
o social disorder—loitering juveniles, public drunkenness, gangs, drug sales and use,
harassment, prostitution
Incivility and Disorder
 Incivility in a neighborhood has been proposed as evidence that the residents are not
concerned, or at least are less concerned, about what is happening around them
 Signs of physical and social disorder signal an area or location is not protected and is open to
criminality
Incivility and Disorder
 Perkins & Taylor (1996)
o Physical disorder can contribute to the growth of social disorder
 Nonresidential property or abandoned structures interrupting a housing block
 The physical layout may inhibit social interaction among residents and allow
for social incivilities to arise
INCIVILITY, DISORDER, AND CRIME
 Incivility has been accepted almost without question as a cause of crime and fear in society,
despite the relative lack of research on the subject
o area disorder measured objectively by independent raters is only marginally related to
fear and resident behavior
o strong relationship between disorder and fear (and possibly behavior) appears only
when perceived incivilities are considered
Incivility and Disorder
 For the offender, signs of incivility are indicative of lower risk
 Some studies show crime and fear are higher in areas displaying signs of disorder
SUMMARY
 Evidence on physical design shows some promising results along with a number of instances
in which the impact of the techniques is inconsistent
 Reasons for the discrepancies:
o evaluators often fail to consider the vast array of alternative variables that may be
contributing to the levels of crime and fear besides those under study
o many studies fail to specify an adequate control group or have no control group
o The vast array of study sites makes comparison across studies difficult
 Many physical design features contribute to the building of fortresses for protection
 Little or no evidence that physical design will engender a sense of community, social support,
and territoriality
End of Chapter 4