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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.

The purpose of this paper is to use an environmental criminology and situational crime prevention (SCP) framework to study global assassinations carried out by terrorists. The authors set forth a series of hypotheses to explain successful and unsuccessful assassination incidents.

The authors use assassination data from the Global Terrorism Database from 1970 to 2014 to estimate a series binary logistic regression models.

Results indicate that various situational factors contribute to successful assassinations, such as target types, weapon types, total fatalities, and injuries.

These findings suggest that environmental criminology and SCP are valuable in developing prevention measures that thwart and disrupt attempted assassinations by terrorists.

Criminology has yet to apply environmental criminology and SCP to assassinations, a tactic often used by terrorists. This paper thus extends the existing assassination, terrorism, and criminology literature by applying this framework to assassinations performed by terrorists.

As a well-known social institution, crime prevention has traditionally been in the purview of public authorities. However, the ceaseless increase in the use of online resources and governments’ responsibilisation approach to cybercrime prevention has created an ecosystem, which necessitates the empowerment of individuals. By introducing the concept of internal spheres of protection, the purpose of this paper is to show how traditionally public responsibilities require increased facilitation by individuals to adequately safeguard what they value.

This is a brief conceptual paper, which recasts the individual’s role in cybercrime prevention through a critique of the routine activity theory (Cohen and Felson, 1979) and explains how responsibilisation (Garland, 1996) has created an unavoidable need to provide individuals with the knowledge and tools required to avoid online victimisation.

In the context of cybercrime, criminological theories that are limited in considering the individual both as the target of crime and the person likeliest to prevent it are quickly becoming outdated. Public authorities either cannot intervene or are moving away from intervening on citizens’ behalf to effectively stymie the pressure from cybercriminals. Thus, there is a need of an approach that starts with individuals and their value-based motivations.

The concept of internal spheres of protection is a novel way of looking at cybercrime prevention. The internal spheres are based on individuals’ values, and the value of security in particular, and take cyber-knowledge as a point of departure towards safeguarding such values, i.e. through risk-decreasing actions and the use of relevant tools.

Looks at various ways in which properties can be made more secure. Using a little thought and planning can make it more difficult for people to enter the property, and more time‐consuming for intruders to exit. Looks at ways in which the layout of stores can be more of a deterrent to would‐be perpetrators, reducing opportunities for casual opportunists to take advantage and posing more problems for the determined offenders.

Recent criminological attention has tended to focus upon those areas from which direct policy proposals can be made, whether it be to improve the ways in which the criminal justice system treats victims or the specific measures that can be taken to prevent specific types of crime and criminal. Two areas in particular have proved fruitful: the ‘broken windows’ thesis of Kelling and Wilson has led to studies of crime prevention strategies, including ways in which communities can be encouraged to self‐police, and the work of Levi, Burrows, McBarnet and others has focused attention upon the attitudes of those involved in the financial services sector towards financial and business crime. It is argued that the issue of gender has been largely ignored in the consideration of financial crime; that aspects of the ‘broken windows’ thesis lend themselves to consideration in the context of financial crime, and that to investigate attitudes towards female criminality in the context of the financial services sector — to look for ‘Ms Big’ — may throw unexpected light upon the reported incidence of both male and female criminality in this area. Since the inception of criminology the issue of the involvement of women in crime has been problematic. Theories about women's criminality have frequently taken a basically biological stance; although more recently this view has been challenged by (female) criminologists, nevertheless there has been a tendency cither to ignore the question of whether there are different attitudinal factors at play, or to assume that the best explanation for the persistence of the ratio of male to female crime must lie in women's biology and psychology. Of course, originally biological and psychological explanations for criminality were not given solely for women alone. Yet whereas the general failure of criminology to provide a causal theory for criminality led to a change of emphasis in the nature of its concerns, moving on to consider specific types of criminal and criminal activity, such as delinquency, the behaviour of gangs, rational choice‐making by burglars, and the like, the exploration of gender in specific types of criminality has largely fallen by the wayside. Yet the positivist notion, that the difference in recorded criminality rates for the sexes reflects reality, can still be detected in the persistence of the question ‘Why do women commit less crime than men?’ The idea that reported and recorded crime rates can be safely taken as ‘true’ has been abandoned otherwise, and indeed the way in which crime statistics are produced has become a topic of study in its own right. One issue that has been raised in relation to females and crime is whether there is a ‘new’ female criminal. This idea sought to link together female emancipation and rates and types of crime committed. The evidence for this has been much criticised, however, it being pointed out by Smart that not only do the statistics, when compared over a 40‐year period, cast doubt upon the asserted recent percentage increase, but that in its own way this is another monocausal explanation. Moreover, it ignores the effect that the existence of the women's movement may have upon ‘significant defining agencies such as the police and the courts’. In short, utilising other theoretical developments in criminology, feminists have formed what might be called ‘critiques from within’: that is, if the premises of criminology are correct, they should be able to cope with female criminality: criminogenic factors should be able to explain the comparative level of female criminality as opposed to that of males. Thus, by adopting the so‐called ‘strain’ theories one may re‐evaluate the role of social structure, power and privilege in the economic relations of society to suggest that women are systematically deprived of access to sources of power and prestige, although this again treats women as an homogeneous group. Furthermore, these factors are not sufficient to explain the level of criminality either individually or at aggregated levels, for women should be among the most criminal and more women should be criminal. As Morris says, a theory that cannot explain this, cannot even be said to be an adequate explanation for male criminality. This is not to deny that the targets of criminology today are thought‐provoking. For a number of reasons current criminology takes on more specific targets than the production of grand theory: it looks at policing and policers, regulation and regulators, victimisation, specific venues for crime: it looks towards the creation of policy and the establishment of a body of crime‐and‐victim‐specific data. The redefinition of the subject‐matter of criminology, to include not only objective crime but perceptions of crime, has also encom‐passed the realisation that the definition of deviance relates not only to delinquency but also to those in the upper socio‐economic strata. For example, the ability of certain advantaged participants actively to define and redefine the boundaries between the legal and the illegal has been raised, notably by McBarnet. Such developments have also occurred in what was once known only as ‘white‐collar crime’. Suitable topics for attention now include the evaluation of self‐regulation versus criminal law as effective sanctions, the rating of different crimes in terms of their seriousness by those in the financial services sector, the attitude of those employed to enforce the self‐policing of the regulated sectors of the economy to the police and indeed their definition of what is, and is not, ‘criminal’ behaviour in normal busi‐ness life. Yet whilst the effect of the criminal justice system in differentially sanctioning and sentencing offenders has been looked at in terms of the gender of the offender, those working in the specific area of financial crime and the financial services sector do not appear to have linked together the type of crime with the gender of the offender. There would appear to be good reason to do so.

Although the threat of terrorist attacks is not a new phenomenon for hotels, limited literature exists on measures that hotels can take to prevent them or limit their damage. The purpose of this paper is to propose a baseline strategy to address this threat.

Using the terrorist attack cycle and the security function models introduced in this paper, 19 hotel security experts, members of an international working group on terrorism, were tasked to reach consensus on a baseline anti‐terrorist strategy for a hotel. To reach this consensus, the study employed the Nominal Group Technique.

The study presents a six‐step baseline anti‐terrorism strategy and a series of measures and actions under each step. In the centre of this strategy lies the disruption of the terrorist attack cycle.

There are limitations inherent to the Nominal Group Technique which may not allow the generalizability of the findings. However, every effort was made to ensure the reliability and validity of the study.

The study suggests a shift from physical protection alone to a more intelligence‐led approach. Counter‐surveillance, terrorist behavioral analysis, higher visibility of security measures, stronger relationships with local community leaders, collaborative relationships with emergency response agencies and strategic use of risk intelligence providers will have to take a higher place in the agendas of hotel security departments.

The paper presents, for the first time, two models that industry practitioners will find useful when designing security policies: the terrorist attack cycle and the security function model. Each component of the proposed strategy provides a starting point for the design of security strategies tailored on the security needs and budget of any hotel property.

This study aims to examine the relationships among some important factors and perceived personal safety in public places, using Nigerian urban shopping centers as case studies. Following the evidence from previous studies, the present study hypothesizes that individual characteristics influence perceived personal safety in shopping centers, and users’ perceived safety is affected by the shopping centers’ environmental attributes.

Two shopping centers were selected as cases for the study. Systematic sampling technique was used to select participants. Respondents were asked to answer closed-ended questions pertaining to environmental-design satisfaction, socio-economic and demographic characteristics and shopping center use. In total, 784 users participated in the survey. However, only 440 users properly completed the interview: 219 from Aleshinloye and 221 from Gbagi. Environmental design, socio-economic and demographic characteristics and shopping center use are independent variables, whereas perceived safety is a dependent variable. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis and Man–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests.

Results show that fear of crime is the most important factor, explaining 28.16 per cent of the total variance in perceived safety. Nevertheless, findings show that demographic factors have a significant impact on perceived safety as well. There is also a strong association between perceived safety and the use of shopping centers, as Aleshinloye, which is perceived safer, has been more frequently used than Gbagi. Furthermore, environmental design appears as a significant factor for perceived safety in shopping centers, as users of Aleshinloye’s facilities have a better perceived safety from crime, better way-finding ability and more environmental-design satisfaction than users of Gbagi.

The study recommends the provisions of design or security precautions that prevent the fear of crime and improve way-finding capacity and environmental-design satisfaction in urban shopping facilities. Specifically, it is important to have environmental security precautions such as closed circuit televisions, good and functional lighting and private security staff, especially for women and the elderly, in urban commercial centers as these precautions could enhance their sense of personal safety.

Previous studies on shopping centers’ security have mainly concentrated on the relationship between fear of crime, perceived safety and associated factors. No studies to date have explored how way-finding ability affects perceived safety of users of shopping centers. This study contributes to the existing literature, revealing way-finding anxiety to be another important dimension of perceived safety in urban shopping centers.

The purpose of this study is to examine looting behaviour during natural disaster incidents. As a consequence, this study considers looting in the context of two case studies: a Tsunami and a Bushfire. The study offers an exploration into the types of and motivations for looting, as well as reflecting on prevention measures.

The methodological approach of a rapid evidence assessment (REA) is used to examine looting behaviour within the context of two natural disaster incidents, drawing on a thematic analysis, as outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006) to support the presentation of findings.

The findings of the REA yield three themes. The first theme, Theme 1, focuses on the types of offenders – looters, while Theme 2 focuses on the motivations for offending behaviour – looting. The final theme, Theme 3, presents crime prevention responses: looters and looting. Each theme is further illustrated through a number of sub-themes, and while the two case studies centre on two distinct natural disaster incidents, there are similarities that exist between them offering insights for why looting occurs and consequently how to respond to looting.

Previous research has recognised how incidents such as bushfires enable and create opportunity for looting behaviour. Yet, arguably, little has been achieved in successfully preventing such behaviour. This study offers evidence for why looting occurs during natural disaster incidents and considers the prevention measures that can lead to a reduction in this offending into the future. The need for more detailed and primary research into looting during natural disaster incidents is a research implication engendered by the current study.

This study considers crime prevention approaches in the form of situational crime prevention and social development crime prevention that have direct relevance on crime prevention policy and practice. The practical implications are worthy of attention from law enforcement agencies and other first/emergency responders.

This study seeks to offer evidence for policy and practice initiatives that can increase public safety and reduce further threats to community safety during natural disaster incidents.

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, a concerted effort for swifter and more effective responses to emergency management incidents has occurred. However, the focus of such responses has typically overlooked looting during natural disaster incidents. This study goes some way in addressing that gap in the literature and connects the current scientific knowledge to prevention strategies, informing future policy and practice responses to addressing looting during such incidents. This study provides a stimuli for further research into looters, looting and natural disaster incidents.