Search results

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the core findings from recently published place‐based crime prevention research. The paper aims to critically evaluate the available evidence on the contribution of crime prevention through environmental design as a crime prevention strategy.

Large‐scale evaluations of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) are reviewed with a view to clarifying current knowledge on the evidence of crime prevention through environmental design.

The review concludes that there is a growing body of research that supports the assertion that crime prevention through environmental design is effective in reducing both crime and fear of crime in the community.

Although the paper may not review all the evaluations of CPTED, it nonetheless provides a detailed compilation and overview of the most significant research in the area, including an extensive and modern bibliography on the subject. Research implications will be the subject of a forthcoming paper.

CPTED is an increasingly fashionable approach and is being implemented on a global scale. Additionally, individual components such as territoriality, surveillance, maintenance, access control, activity support and target‐hardening are being widely deployed. However, the evidence currently available is inconclusive and much criticised, which effectively prevents widespread intervention and investment by central government. The paper details the difficulties associated with demonstrating the effectiveness of CPTED.

The paper concludes that although empirical proof has not been definitively demonstrated, there is a large and growing body of research, which supports the assertion that crime prevention through environmental design is a pragmatic and effective crime prevention tool. This review provides an extensive bibliography of contemporary crime prevention through environmental design and a follow‐up paper will discuss the future research priorities for it.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), a crime prevention tool, on reducing rates of sexual assault. In addition, the study attempts to understand if CPTED results in crime displacement in non-target areas.

This research utilizes a Weighted Displacement Quotient (WDQ) model to analyze the effects of CPTED, which is an appropriate tool in fields of regional-scale crime prevention and on sexual assault prevention. WDQ is capable of analyzing policy effectiveness while controlling for geographical crime displacement, a known side effect of CPTED in the literature.

The analysis results show that CPTED is an effective tool to prevent sexual assaults in South Korea. The sexual assault occurrence rate decreased in the CPTED implementation zone of Yeomri-dong Mapo-gu. WDQ showed that crime displacement occurred in adjacent areas in Daeheung-dong and Ahyun-dong. But, crime displacement was lower than the policy effectiveness in the target zone.

The policy implications of this research are immense. First, CPTED for the prevention of sexual assaults should be considered as a pre-control tool. Second, a strategic method for more effectively implementing CPTED is required. Third, because CPTED is a policy done on a regional scale, provisions need to be in place to manage crime displacement.

The purposes of this research were to review, analyze, synthesize and define the principles, indicators and required design elements of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) and the potential role of the design of the courtyards in preventing campus violence; to examine the relationships between built environment design and campus violence inside Al al-Bayt University (AABU), Jordan; and to examine to what extent the design of the open public spaces and courtyards inside AABU meet the design principles of the CPTED.

This research used descriptive-analytical approach, semi-structured interviews, archival records and videos to collect the location-based data of violent events and incidents that occurred on the campus of AABU (the locations of students' fights). Additionally, this research used AABU images; plans, spatial analysis, site visits and direct observations to analyze and assess the courtyards’ design and to examine to what extent the design of courtyards and open public spaces in AABU achieve the CPTED indicators, and the availability and the quality of the required design elements of CPTED and their role in violence prevention.

This research found that environmental-based design plays a major role in reducing crime opportunities and promote positive social behavior. This research found that the indicators to achieve the CPTED principles in all courtyard design inside AABU are very low and all the courtyards’ designs are not complied and conformed to the CPTED principles, and as a result, the design of the courtyards encourages and may facilitate violence in the university campus. It has been found that the availability and the quality of the required CPTED design elements are very low in all courtyards. Therefore, the existing design elements in all courtyards in AABU are not preventing the university violence. The correlation result revealed that there is significant relationship and strong/very strong negative linear association between the numbers of the students' fights and the applying of CPTED principles, indicators and required design elements (r = −0.85).

The data collected from AABU campus only and a larger study is certainly required to underpin these findings. Therefore, future research is needed to replicate and duplicate this research in order to expand the results.

This research has implications for designing/redesigning the open public space and courtyards inside universities. This research recommended that redesigning all courtyards and applying the principles of CPTED are necessary to prevent campus violence. Redesigning includes adding landscaping elements, fountains, water features, pedestrian furniture, portrait, setting areas, new modern sculptures, shaded areas, lighting, memorial places, digital screens and cameras. Moreover, this research recommended that the university should pay more attention to continuous control, repair and maintenance to all courtyards after redesigning them. Finally, this research introduced a design proposal for one of the courtyards to apply the CPTED principles that promote positive behavior and prevent campus violence.

In the last few years in Jordan, some of the public and private Jordanian universities suffered from a newly emerging negative phenomenon, which is violence between students inside the campus. Many researchers and governmental institutions have stressed the urgency to explore the social, cultural, behavioral and environmental strategies that may effectively prevent campus violence. Additionally, little attention has been paid to the role of built environmental design in preventing campus violence. Moreover, no research assesses the applying of the CPTED principles and their indicators in courtyards’ design in Jordanian campuses.

There is a robust study on crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) in student housing nowadays, but has a limited utilization of weight-of-evidence (W-o-E) approach. This study aims to assess the extent of CPTED in student housing facilities of universities in Ghana.

Using the on-campus student housing facilities of both private and public universities, the study adopted W-o-E approach that integrates two postoccupancy evaluations from end-users and student housing managers. In addition, observation by professionals as the lines of evidence (LoE) was also adopted. Weighted median was used to normalise the LoE into a W-o-E as the CPTED value in the student housing facilities.

The study uncovered low CPTED in the student housing facilities. Maintenance was identified as the leading CPTED principle present in the student housing facilities.

The study has given the extent of CPTED in students’ housing, an important insight for university students’ housing management. This can serve as a policy alert for the university students’ housing management to adopt building designs that enhance CPTED and the safety of the youth.

This study is different from other CPTED and students’ housing studies commonly situated in the Euro-America context. The study exceptionally applied the use of W-o-E in students’ housing in assessing the extent of CPTED in student housing within the context of sub-Saharan African universities.

Crime and fear of crime in and around the university campus can affect enrolments and retention rates as well as compromising the safety, security and well-being of students and staff. The purpose of this paper is to explore user perceptions of personal safety using the “Prospect and Refuge Model” and crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED).

The study used a fear of crime survey of 88 students at a university in Western Australia. The respondents were asked to identify on a map, three locations perceived to be “safe” and three locations perceived to be “unsafe”. The six most commonly identified sites were then visually audited to measure the levels of “prospect” and “refuge” and CPTED features at each location.

The findings indicate the top three “fear spots” were associated with low levels of “prospect” and high levels of “refuge” – and generally, with poor opportunities for natural surveillance and CPTED qualities. The top three “safe spots” had consistently higher levels of “prospect” and lower levels of “refuge” in the site audits and responses to the surveys. Increased opportunities for surveillance were therefore associated with increased levels of personal safety.

The survey is relatively small (88) and a larger study is certainly required to underpin these findings. The methodology is transferable to other universities and facilities seeking to manage crime and fear of crime. The research develops more finely nuanced measures for the concepts of prospect and refuge.

Interestingly, surveillance opportunities and perceptions of personal safety were perceived to be mediated by distance from buildings and by the construction of new buildings and infrastructure being carried out across the campus. This has implications for the construction of new universities and for those which are expanding. Recommendations are provided for new and existing universities and for those undergoing redevelopment.

Improving students’ perception of personal safety can enhance their performance and retention at university.

No studies have investigated the campus design and layout and students’ perceptions of personal safety in Australia in this way. The approach is more “bottom-up” by first exploring users’ perceptions of “unsafe” locations, then assessing these sites in terms of the presence or absence of measures for CPTED and prospect-refuge.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the contribution that Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is making to the post-earthquake rebuild of Christchurch, New Zealand. The paper traces the uptake of CPTED in Christchurch pre-earthquake and describes the steps taken to ensure the increasing use of CPTED in the rebuild.

The paper is a case study and discusses the author's experience of working within Christchurch before the earthquake and describes their involvement in the rebuild of Christchurch post-earthquake.

There has been significant process made in incorporating CPTED into the rebuild of Christchurch. A formal mandate to consider CPTED is included in the Central Christchurch Recovery Plan and a range of other initiatives have been established. These are broadening the uptake of CPTED throughout public and commercial rebuild projects and improving local advisory and practitioner capacity. CPTED is being included earlier in planning and design.

The Christchurch rebuild may be the most extensive application of CPTED yet. It is hoped that Christchurch's experience can be used as a model for other cities to increase their use of CPTED.

The purpose of this paper is to examine realtors and residents’ perceptions of the effectiveness of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) in reducing night-time and daytime break-ins in residential estate.

The study adopted case study methods. Two residential estates (one at inner and the other at outer city) were selected as cases of the study. Data were collected from two sets of respondents: realtors and tenants. In the realtors’ cluster, all real estate and property development companies were sampled since the population is very small. Systematic sampling technique was used to select residents. Respondents were asked to answer closed-ended questions on socio-economic and demographic characteristics, perception of property crime, spending on CPTED and effectiveness of CPTED. Data were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics.

Findings disclose that more than half of the residents of inner and outer city had been victims of housebreaks and these incidences are expected to increase in the nearest future. To reduce break-ins, findings show that realtors and residents have spent on both formal and informal surveillance with emphasis on ensuring visual control over premises. Furthermore, respondents confirm the effectiveness of CPTED in deterring break-ins. The study establishes variation in the realtors and tenants’ perception of break-ins as spending on CPTED strategies vary between them, with locations and types of properties.

Social and human factors remain very important as far as the prevention of break-ins is concerned. These should be taken into considerations when improving CPTED approach in the future. Besides, adequate attentions should be given to daytime break-in. Nonetheless, night-time break-ins should not be neglected. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of visible, clean and well-lit premises as ways of reducing break-ins. It is therefore suggested that residential properties should be well lit at nights, while CCTV and security personnel be positioned in strategic places and within security viewing range so as to send fast alerts to the nearest police stations in the cases of break-in(s).

Very few studies on effectiveness of CPTED have mainly concentrated on how CPTED works in residential estates. No study till date, have explored how realtors perceive CPTED in preventing break-ins. Besides, this study contributes to existing literature having revealed variation in the realtors and tenants’ spending on CPTED on the basis of property location and types of residential properties.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) aims to make the built environment less vulnerable to crime and disorder through its design. CPTED is applied in practice by Architectural Liaison Officers/Crime Prevention Design Advisors employed within each police force in England and Wales. Their aim is to advise built environment professionals (architects and planners) how opportunities for crime and disorder can be minimised through the design of a development without compromising on the design quality. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of relevant literature and an example of one force's promising, but as yet unevaluated, approach to embedding CPTED early in the planning process.

The paper takes a case study approach and outlines how Greater Manchester Police Design for Security Consultancy (GMP DFSC) liaise with built environment professionals in an attempt to design out opportunities for crime and disorder to occur at the pre‐planning stage of a development.

The findings suggest that the process and delivery of CPTED by GMP DFSC is unique when compared to the delivery of CPTED across other areas of England and Wales. Using the Crime Impact Statement (CIS), GMP DFSC are consulted on a range of proposed planning applications prior to the application being submitted to the local planning authority, opposed to later in the planning and development process, where the opportunities to “design out crime” become limited. The staff employed by GMP DFSC have previously worked within the built environment and are not warranted or retired police officers. GMP DFSC also charge a fee for the service which they provide.

This paper should be of interest to built environment professionals seeking to incorporate and embed the principles of CPTED into the design and pre‐planning stages of proposed developments.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a commentary on the implementation of the Guidelines for Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) in New Zealand. Published in 2005, the guidelines represented a significant shift in both the appreciation and awareness of CPTED amongst its built environment professionals and those involved in crime prevention. The author refers to a case study from Maraenui, New Zealand, which demonstrates a holistic approach to regeneration through community involvement and decision making.

The paper is an invited opinion piece and comment based upon the specialist experience and viewpoint of the author as an urban designer with an Australasian multi-disciplinary design company. Through the use of a case study, the author discusses creative solutions to reducing crime that has helped to promote and support a more resilient future for Maraenui.

The author explores the realities and challenges to progressing the practice and evaluation of CPTED in New Zealand, and outlines, in his opinion, what actions may impact its future direction and success.

On the basis of their experience, the author argues the need for four key actions that he believes are required to advance CPTED in New Zealand.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate “image management” as an important element within the concept to the Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Globally, guidance tends to focus on promoting surveillance and few studies have explored how vacant poorly maintained housing might affect perceptions of crime and CPTED.

This paper contrasts the perceptions of 168 members of the public and 12 built environment professionals with regards to a detached property in Perth, Western Australia. Using two photographs to elicit responses (one poorly maintained and one well-maintained) respondents were asked about their perceptions of crime, and the extent to which CPTED features were perceived to be present. These results are contrasted with a site audit of the CPTED qualities visible in both images.

The CPTED audit recorded significantly higher scores for the well-maintained property than for the poorly maintained dwelling. Most respondents indicated they felt less safe, perceived more crime and lower levels of CPTED in relation to the poorly maintained house. The findings provide support that there is a link between poorly maintained housing and the perceptions of CPTED, crime and the fear of crime.

This innovative study utilised two photographic images of the same property to probe “image management”, perceptions of crime and CPTED qualities. It highlights the need to consider these issues throughout the different stages of the development process and presents idea of the “cradle to the grave” life-cycle of criminal opportunities.