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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.

Shoplifting has become a widespread crime problem worldwide. The study aims to investigate retailers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)-based techniques to prevent shoplifting in Istanbul.

Data collection involved 370 face-to-face interviews with store managers at shopping malls in Istanbul by using a structured, self-explanatory questionnaire. The current study applies CPTED approach to measure the effectiveness of informal and formal surveillance techniques.

The results revealed that store managers perceived awareness of sales staff as the most effective CPTED-based approach to prevent shoplifting. The study identified six factors underlying perceived effectiveness of CPTED-based techniques: surveillance (informal surveillance), image/maintenance and surveillance (formal surveillance), territoriality, surveillance (formal surveillance), surveillance (mechanical surveillance) and target hardening.

No research to date has addressed the effectiveness of CPTED-based techniques in Turkey at shopping malls. Given the limited number of prior research, the results provide important insights regarding the perceived effectiveness of CPTED-based techniques.

Given their young age, students are at a heightened risk of violent victimisation. Yet few studies have considered students’ perceptions of safety and the impact of these, on a British university campus. The purpose of this research was to close this gap.

From late 2019–2020, using an online university wide survey, data was gathered over a three-month period from 550 students studying at a university in the north of England on “city” campuses about their perceptions of safety and security on-campus.

Students, particularly women students, felt unsafe on the university campuses because of poor lighting, limited CCTV, security patrols and the presences of others. They felt unsafe in and around teaching buildings, moving around the campuses and in transport locations.

The response rate of the survey was 6%. Consequently, the findings are not representative of the wider student population on the campuses.

Campus Security should consider enhancing surveillance on the campuses.

Students, particularly women, limited the time they spent on-campus studying because they felt unsafe. Their choices about when and how to engage in their university education were therefore restricted.

This study addresses the gap in research on students’ perceptions of safety and the impact of these, on a British university campus. In doing so, it forefronts the responsibility of higher education institutions to enhance students’ safety, including their perceptions of safety, on-campus.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an example, for, school administrators and planners, of the cohesiveness of community policies and school design and planning endeavors during the 1980s in Arizona, USA.

The paper reports the results of a qualitative, discourse analysis involving images of the exterior and interior of a high school.

The built environment included three separate discourses which supported a community ideology that was common in the late 1980s. The three discourses involved natural surveillance, fostering neighborly interactions, and planned diversity of spaces.

This paper provides insight into school design and planning, the integration of the surrounding community and how schooling practices can be influenced because of this context.

Tanner's article in 2000 discussing the influence of school architecture on academic achievement introduced this discussion to administrators and planners and articles in the May issue of Journal of Educational Administration continued the discussion. This paper furthers the discussion through a qualitative, visual study; so as to generate new understandings.

The purpose of this study is to examine crime characteristics and its causation in Mushin Lagos Nigeria. The incidence of urban crime in Nigeria has been associated with increasing urbanization, high poverty level, congestion, unemployment, deprivation, income inequality, poor physical planning and design, political democratization, disorganization and moral decadence and breakdown in infrastructure. Hence, tackling urban crimes in selected communities within Lagos state will address several issues, creating inclusiveness and safer communities.

Primary data were collected through questionnaire administration on three income groups, cutting across 14 communities in the study area. Multistage sampling techniques were adopted to select six communities (Idi Araba, Idi Oro, Fadeyi, Ilasamaja Papa Ajao and Ilupeju), 60 streets and 144 respondents for this study. Respondents selected for this study are individuals who have stayed in the communities for more than five years.

This study reports no statistically significant variation in the crime occurrence by type across the selected communities. However, residents experienced a high occurrence of crime against a person in robbery, assault and pocket-picking, especially among the low-income earners. The same trend was observed in crimes against property such as theft, burglary and store breaking in the low- and middle-income areas, whereas burglary, theft and car theft have high occurrence in the high-income areas. In addition, crimes against morality inform of gambling, prostitution and offences against public peace were high in the low- and high-income areas, whereas gambling, prostitution and bribery are common in the middle-income areas.

This study identifies appropriate policies for combating crime. Collective values promote citizen participation and encourage Do It Yourself in the communities. Stakeholders’ crime prevention mechanism will create safer communities. Social crime prevention and environmental design is an instrument for creating safer cities.

The outcome of this study addresses goal 11 of the SDGs if properly managed.

The cost to supermarkets from shoplifting is a growing problem. Despite huge investments in formal security measures, supermarkets experience shrinkage and face heavy financial losses. Hence, this paper explores an alternative approach to shoplifting prevention. The purpose of this paper is to propose that quality relationships between a supermarket and its customers could be a viable strategy for shoplifting prevention. A conceptual model is presented at the end of this paper for encouraging shoplifting prevention using a theory of planned behaviour perspective.

A systematic search of literature on relationship quality was conducted. Research papers were shortlisted from peer-reviewed journals published between 2007 and 2016. For the convenience of readers, studies on relationship quality are presented in six cross-checked information categories in a table.

This study produced two results. First, it finds three antecedents of supermarket-customer relationship quality. These are as follows: a supermarket’s participation in corporate social responsibility and cause-related marketing initiatives, a supermarket’s service quality, and a customer’s attachment to a supermarket’s place/location. Second, there are three major effective dimensions of relationship quality. These are as follows: satisfaction, trust, and commitment. The proposed model incorporates factors from both findings, to measure a supermarket-customer relationship quality that may influence intention of customers to engage in shoplifting preventive behaviour.

This research paper has reviewed the existing literature to utilise it in the context of shoplifting prevention, and developed a novel model/framework for effective shoplifting prevention with a theory of planned behaviour perspective.

The social context in Polish high-rise neighbourhoods varies from one in Western Europe. This typology is not associated with social housing and the ownership of the dwellings mixed. Moreover, nearly half of the population of Poland lives in this type of real estates. Sociological research shows that the subjective quality of life is decent. Nevertheless, the dwellings are still considered a rather poor place to live and there are various aspects that need to be improved. Widzew is a typical example of the 1970s and 80s concrete high-rise housing area. Many similar developments have been built during the communist era in Eastern Europe. There are many degenerated buildings, while new developments intrude the existing environment, obstructing social and urban structure. The purpose of this paper is to analyse this environment and investigate the social problems and the urban context.

The authors have conducted sociological surveys and field observations to measure the subjective quality of life. After analysing the data, several problems appeared, such as lack of maintenance, poor quality of public space, the sense of insecurity and lack of social cohesion. The main scientific question is if and how the crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) method can address those issues. This paper wants to address major problems found in the social research by using a combination of CPTED solutions.

The necessity to apply the CPTED analysis in the quasi-public space is clearly noticeable. It is this space that is often perceived by the inhabitants as dangerous. It appears that it can be easily assessed via four criteria – visibility, accessibility, territoriality and attractiveness.

The novel idea was to compare the findings of a sociological survey on quality of life with the results of space analysis based on the CPTED method. This study might bring general recommendations for high-rise neighbourhoods in Eastern Europe.

The contribution of neighbourhood structure to residents’ perceptions towards built environment is becoming recognised. Although considerable theoretical evidence exists to support the idea that natural surveillance is related to perceptions of safety, the empirical literature on examining the effect of neighbourhood structure and residents’ attitude towards their neighbourhood on perceptions of safety is limited, especially in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationships between natural surveillance, perceived disorder, social cohesion and perception of safety in a gated community.

A total of 250 households from Babolsar, Iran, participated in this study. The structural equation modelling technique was employed to examine the research model.

The results indicate that natural surveillance is negatively related to disorder and is positively related to social cohesion and perception of safety. The model also shows no significant relationship between social cohesion and perception of safety in the study area. Residents perceived relatively high levels of social cohesion, but their perceptions of safety were moderate.

Findings emphasise the importance of neighbourhood structure and active roles of local communities in enhancing neighbourly relations and perceptions of safety.

A key question for shopping malls is to create a retail environment that is at the same time safe and entertaining. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into this process by examining how consumers view various formal and informal surveillance practices in the context of shopping malls. The classification of surveillance practices into formal and informal surveillance is based on crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) theory. The paper also studies how consumers can be grouped according to their views on these surveillance practices.

The paper uses the CPTED theory as a theoretical lens and studies the consumers’ views of formal and informal surveillance using data gathered from a survey of 200 shopping mall visitors. The data are analyzed using principal components analysis and cluster analysis.

The results show that customer experience of safe retail environments reflects the distinction between informal and formal surveillance in the CPTED theory. The paper also shows that consumers have several different preferences towards surveillance practices and consumers can be grouped according to their preferences for surveillance methods.

This paper has provided new insights regarding the use of CPTED theory in research into formal and informal surveillance practices in shopping malls. The findings provide tools that help mall managers focus on the different needs of consumers in their quest to create safe and entertaining retail environment.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how retailers view the links between security problems, investments in formal and informal surveillance, the sense of security felt among customers and employees, and the competitiveness of the store.

The study utilizes elements of the theory of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) in its theoretical approach. Thus, surveillance investments are divided into formal and informal surveillance investments. The theoretical model is tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) with data collected among grocery store retailers.

The study shows that security problems have a positive impact on investments in formal surveillance but no impact on investments in informal surveillance. Furthermore, retailers perceive that formal surveillance investments have a negative impact on the sense of security felt among customers and employees, whereas informal surveillance investments have a positive impact. In addition, retail entrepreneurs perceive that the sense of security felt among customers and employees has a positive impact on the competitiveness of the store.

The impact of investments in security should also be studied from other viewpoints than just retailers. In addition, conceptual and qualitative empirical studies are needed to obtain a clearer understanding of the effectiveness of surveillance in the store environment.

The paper shows retailers the linkages between different types of surveillance investments and the sense of security felt among consumers and retail employees.

The present research provides empirical evidence on how investments in security are linked to the competitiveness of retail stores.