Reducing Criminal Opportunities Through
Environmental Manipulation
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This chapter is concerned with environmental
criminology
What is environmental criminology?
◦ Assumes there is little that can be done to change
criminals
◦ Focus is on what can be done about crime
◦ Includes situational crime prevention
◦ Concerned with how settings translate criminal inclinations
into action
◦ Includes Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
(CPTED)
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What is the rational offender perspective?
◦ It is basically deterrence theory
◦ Assumes offenders weigh costs/benefits of violating the law
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What is the link to environmental criminology?
◦ Environmental features may affect the cost/benefit decision process
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Routine activities theory
◦ Motivated offenders
 Handlers and place managers may discourage offenders from crime
◦ Suitable targets
 Target for environmental manipulation
◦ Absence of guardians
 Need more cops, security guards, etc.
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Crime pattern theory is concerned with the places
frequented by criminals
Key concepts
◦ Behavior space
 Locations offenders frequent
◦ Awareness space
 Areas with which offenders are familiar
◦ The interaction between behavior space and awareness
space
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Territorial functioning/defensible space
perspective is concerned with the attachment
people have to the areas around them
◦ Territorial cognition
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Defensible space
◦ How physical characteristics of spaces affect
behavior, criminal and noncriminal
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Incivilities thesis
◦ Low-level offenses/breaches of community
standards that
 Increase fear
 Send a signal that an area is out of control
 Lead to an increase in serious crime
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What is the link to environmental
manipulation?
◦ Minimize potential for incivilities and crime may
decline
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Four methods of reducing criminal
opportunity through environmental
manipulation have been identified
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Access control
Surveillance
Activity support
Motivation reinforcement
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Most common method of discouraging
crime at residences is target hardening
Does it work?
◦ Research from the U.K. suggests it does, but
little research has been conducted in U.S.
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Another approach is property marking, but
there is little research suggesting this
approach works
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Much more researchers’ attention has
been drawn to areas surrounding
residences
Methods
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Which method works best?
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◦ Restrict pedestrian access
◦ Closed-circuit television (CCTV)
◦ Several studies show restriction of pedestrian
access is effective, but there is little research
on CCTV
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Several environmental manipulations have been
combined
Examples
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Do comprehensive approaches work?
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◦ Combine apartment watch, target hardening, property
marking, lighting improvements, etc.
◦ Removal of coin-operated meters with cocoon
neighborhood watch
◦ Graduated surveillance
◦ Civil nuisance abatement combined with other
approaches
◦ The evidence is more supportive of this method than
isolated approaches
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Types of gated communities
◦ Fee-based
◦ No fee
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Reasons for living in gated communities
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Safety
Strong HOA
Family
Recreation
Real Benefits?
◦ Understudied (people feel safer; not clear about crime differences)
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Downside?
◦ Siege mentality
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With respect to convenience stores, researchers have looked at
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Two clerks instead of one
Security cameras
Silent alarms
Security systems (for after hours)
Barricades (for after hours)
What works?
◦ Very little research in this area
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Other crime concerns
◦ Shoplifting
 EAS and ink tags—effective
◦ Employee theft
 Increased inventorying—effective
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Several environmental manipulations have
been implemented at banks, including
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CCTV
Security guards inside/outside the bank
Protective screens/bulletproof glass
Time-lock safes
Much research shows these approaches are
effective, but the research designs were
weak
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What works at bars?
◦ Better management
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How is it accomplished?
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Training for bouncers
Crowd control
Improved relationships with the police
Code of practice
Don’t serve alcohol to visibly intoxicated people
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Types of crimes of concern on public transit include
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Varieties of environmental manipulations
◦ Vandalism
◦ Robberies and assaults of passengers/drivers
◦ Fare evasion
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Graffiti cleanup
Added law enforcement
CCTV
Publicity
Exact fare systems on buses
Redesigned ticket machines to prevent fare evasion
Redesigned toll gates
Does it work?
◦ Evidence is encouraging
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Pre 9/11 interventions
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Air marshals
Improvements to doors on planes
Baggage screening
Extradition treaties
Metal detectors
Do these methods work?
◦ Some evaluations say yes
◦ 9/11 says no
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Methods of dealing with crime at parking garages include
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Addition of guards
Addition of security attendants
CCTV
Access and exit control
Various combinations of each
Which method works best?
◦ It appears that guards and security attendants work better than
CCTV
◦ Access/exit control underresearched
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Question?
◦ Do the benefits of environmental manipulation outweigh the
costs?
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Environmental manipulations in open spaces
include
◦ Lighting
◦ Street closures/traffic restrictions
◦ CCTV
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What works?
◦ Lighting in open spaces appears effective, but it is not
clear whether this extends to private areas
◦ Street closures with added law enforcement appear
effective
◦ Red light cameras (a twist on CCTV) certainly work!
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Criminals sometimes target parking meters and
public phones
◦ For profit
◦ To avoid paying
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Effective methods of targeting public phones
include
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Design improvements
Electronic monitoring of phone booths
Hardened coin boxes
Rapid repair of broken phones
Efforts to prevent fraud
Effective methods of targeting parking meters
include
◦ Installing slug-proof meters
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Finally, some good news!
Environmental manipulations appear much
more effective, on the whole, at reducing
crime compared to criminal justice system
expansion
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Reducing criminal opportunities through
environmental manipulation.