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Talk:Crime prevention through environmental design/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Various thoughts and snippets from Robinson

The focus of this CPTED activity by government agencies neglects half of the model developed by Jeffery -- the internal physical environment of the offender. As a result, the CPTED model being used by government agencies is based on the assumption that all offenders are the same, rather than being unique. The development of CPTED by Jeffery would suggest that CPTED programs should take into account how individuals may react differently to environmental design changes. (Robinson, 1996)

Throughout the 1970s, Newman's crime prevention guidelines for public housing continued to be well-received and projects based on it continued to be funded by governmental entities.

Despite Newman's assertions that the concept of defensible space was applicable "to the residential settings of most income groups" such as the neighborhoods discussed above, the validity of his concept has been seriously challenged. Evidence of crime reduction through defensible space was termed "ambiguous" and even that "it did not reduce crime."

Despite problems with Newman's argument, many crime prevention projects utilized Newman's concepts of environmental design rather than Jeffery's.

Newman's notion of environmental design is based on:

the development of coordinated design standards -- for architecture, land use, street layout and street lighting -- which improve security. Its goal is to create environments which reduce the opportunities for crime while encouraging people to use public space in ways that contribute to their safety and enhance their sense of community (LEAA Newsletter, 1974, 4, 3:12-13).

Newman's notion of environmental design is more complex than simply redesigning space. It also includes redesigning residential environments so that residents use the areas and become willing to defend their 'territory.' Yet, it is limited to modifications of the external physical environment in order to produce changes in the external social environment, while completely neglecting the internal physical environment of the organism.

Jeffery's notion of environmental design has evolved into an integrated systems perspective which focuses both on external and internal environments of individual organisms, as well as interactions between the two. Therefore, Jeffery's CPTED model is logically more complete than Newman's defensible space model.


Part of why his CPTED model has been ignored is straightforward and easy to understand: Jeffery's works included no detailed recipes for crime prevention, while Newman's did. Newman's works on defensible space were supported by the government in part because they involved citizen participation, while Jeffery's works criticized the criminal justice system and called for more academic research into the relationship between the internal physical environment and human behavior. Because Jeffery's model would entail examining biological factors, the field of criminology has resisted it, owing in part to the unwelcome niche of biology in the field, and in part to the field's resistance to change. How to specifically include individual genetic and brain differences into a CPTED model is unclear, because the growth of knowledge regarding the brain and genetics has been in a state of rapid change with untested and often conflicting reports. Accepting individual differences would also raise uncomfortable ethical, political and legal issues. The highly supported Newman model has been criticized for neglecting other important factors and found to be insufficient for preventing crime, leading to a loss of interest in CPTED until very recently. Unfortunately, the crime prevention through environmental design that is popular today is rooted deeply in the theoretical perspectives of rational choice, opportunity and routine activity theories. Thus, crime pattern theory and situational crime prevention treat the internal environment of the offender as mental rather than physical. This stands as a major barrier to scientific study in the field of criminology.

Despite these facts, the term CPTED is still credited to Jeffery today even though, as it exists in the government, architecture, academia and corporate businesses, it does not resemble Jeffery's evolved model. This prompted Jeffery to write :

It may be time to drop the term Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design in referring to the Jeffery model, as the term has applied to many different models of crime prevention including Newman's model . . . [and Crowe's model]. The term crime prevention may be more accurate and more descriptive of the concepts included in the 1971 and 1977" books (Jeffery and Zahm, 1993:330-1, italics in original).

Since Jeffery's CPTED model does include both the external environment of the place and the internal environment of the offender, perhaps "crime prevention" is a better term for it. This is especially true, given peoples' reluctance to use the term CPTED for anything other than defensible space, target hardening, and altering buildings and other external environments. Nevertheless, CPTED could still be an accurate term, if changing either or both of the environments was taken to mean crime prevention through environmental design (del Carmen, 1997). As it is though, Jeffery's work in the area of crime prevention has been ignored in government, architecture, academia and corporate businesses. Jeffery has developed his original notion of CPTED into a more general theoretical framework of crime prevention. It is hoped that this notion will soon emerge as a guiding beacon for academic criminologists and crime prevention policy-makers. Otherwise, crime prevention through environmental design programs will continue to show ephemeral results owing to their narrow focus on external environmental factors.

Other source material

Latest comment: 16 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

"The proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the fear and incidence of crime, and an improvement of the quality of life.“

CPTED as defined by the National Crime Prevention Institute
---
In the CPTED view of the world, unruly criminal behavior sends the first generation of CPTED gurus (Oscar Newman, Richard Gardner, and Tim Crow representing Westinghouse Corp.) to different mountains where they return with the formulation of the commandments of Defensible Space and CPTED. Newman’s early works bordered on architectural determinism, and Westinghouse’s four test projects for CPTED were so intricate and complicated that they were difficult to measure and evaluate any discernible success. The many physical and social factors made evaluation almost impossible to isolate and measure what was creating the changes in behavior and environment. The implementation of defensible space and CPTED looked and felt good, but lacked the basis in comprehensive logic and the scientific method.

http://www.cpted-security.com/cpted8.htm

1

Natural Surveillance
A design concept directed primarily at keeping intruders easily observable. Promoted by features that maximize visibility of people, parking areas and building entrances: doors and windows that look out on to streets and parking areas; pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and streets; front porches; adequate nighttime lighting
Territorial Reinforcement
Physical design can create or extend a sphere of influence. Users then develop a sense of territorial control while potential offenders, perceiving this control, are discouraged. Promoted by features that define property lines and distinguish private spaces from public spaces using landscape plantings, pavement designs, gateway treatments, and 'CPTED" fences.
Natural Access Control
A design concept directed primarily at decreasing crime opportunity by denying access to crime targets and creating in offenders a perception of risk. Gained by designing streets, sidewalks, building entrances and neighborhood gateways to clearly indicate public routes and discouraging access to private areas with structural elements.
Activity Support
Activity support is the presence of activity planned for the space. Activity support involves placing activity where the individuals engaged in an activity will become part of the natural surveillance system. Examples include:

  • Place safe activities in areas that will discourage would be offenders, to increase the natural surveillance of these activities and the perception of safety for normal users, and the perception of risk for offenders.
  • Place high risk activities in safer locations to overcome the vulnerability of these activities by using natural surveillance and access control of the safe area.
  • Locate gathering areas in locations that provide for natural surveillance and access control or in locations away from the view of would-be offenders.
  • Improve the scheduling of space to allow for effective use and appropriate intensity of accepted behaviors.

Maintenance
Proper maintenance of landscaping, lighting treatment and other features can facilitate the principles of CPTED, territorial reinforcement, natural surveillance and natural access control. Functions include:

  • Proper maintenance of lighting fixtures to prescribed standards.
  • Landscaping which is maintained at prescribed standards.
  • Minimizing the conflicts between surveillance and landscaping as the ground cover, shrubs and trees mature.

sources: http://www.cptedontario.ca/ and http://www.tempe.gov/tdsi/Planning/CPTED/cpted1.htm

2

Target Hardening
Accomplished by features that prohibit entry or access: window locks, dead bolts for doors, interior door hinges.
Presented along with each of these CPTED strategies are guidelines which, as a homeowner, builder or remodeler, you can apply to reduce the fear and incidence of crime and improve the quality of life.
source: http://www.cpted-watch.com/introduction.htm#Strategies

3

The 3-Ds
For CPTED to be successful, it must be understandable and practicable for the normal users of the space. The normal users know more about what is going on in the environment and they have a vested interest (their own well-being) in ensuring that their immediate environment operates properly. The "Three-D" approach to space assessment provides a simple guide for the normal users in determining the appropriateness of how their space is designed and used. The Three-D concept is based on the three functions or dimensions of human space:

  1. All human space has some designated purpose.
  2. All human space has social, cultural, legal or physical definitions that prescribe the desired and acceptable behaviors.
  3. All human space is designed to support and encourage the desired behaviors.

source: http://www.tempe.gov/tdsi/Planning/CPTED/cpted1.htm

4

Crime Prevention Through Environmental design (CPTED) is a design methodology proposing that through proper design and use of the built environment, the architect can reduce opportunities for and fear of predatory crime and improve the quality of life. It is taught by the National Crime Prevention Institute, the American Society of Industrial Security, the American Institute of Architects, and the Florida Atlantic University School of Architecture and is based on three functions of human space:

  • Designation: What is the purpose or intention of the space?
  • Definition: What are the social, cultural, legal, and psychological ways the space is defined?
  • Design: Is the space defined to support prescribed or intended behaviors?

Design professionals can use three basic strategies for CPTED: natural access control, natural surveillance, and territorial reinforcement. Each Access control can be implemented through three types of methods:

  • Mechanical (electronic security needs, access control, surveillance devices, and technological solutions).
  • Organizational (staff policies and procedures, information flow, movement of people, and the types, numbers, and deployment of security personnel, police, or designated observers).
  • Natural (physical barriers, circulation patterns of people, information, products, and basic design decisions on circulation, access building materials, fenestration, and other design features that support overall security goals).


The most used CPTED strategies are:
Provide clear border definition of controlled space. Common law requires that space be defined to preserve property rights. Boundaries may be defined physically or symbolically. Fences, shrubbery, and signs are acceptable border definition. The intent is for a "reasonable individual" to recognize that he or she is transitioning from public to private space. Methods for enhancing the territorial response to create a sense of ownership or defensible space should be encouraged. The arrangement of furniture and color is a means of identifying interior spaces. Pictures, plants, and decorations help to define ownership and serve as environmental cues that may affect behavior of legitimate and illegitimate users of the space.
Provide clearly marked transitional zones. It is critical to identify public, semi-public, semi-private, and private spaces. As transitional definition increases, the range of excuses for improper behavior is reduced. Users must be made to acknowledge movement into controlled space.

Relocation of gathering areas. Formally designate gathering or congregating areas in locations with good natural surveillance and access control. Gathering areas in housing complexes may be placed in positions that are out of view of undesired users to decrease the magnetic effect or attraction.
Place safe activities in unsafe locations. Safe activities serve as magnets for normal users who exhibit challenging or controlling behaviors, such as staring, that tell other normal users that they are safe and abnormal users that they are at greater risk of scrutiny or intervention. Some caution must be used to ensure that a safe activity is not being placed in an unreasonable position.
Place unsafe activities in safe locations. Positioning vulnerable activities near windows of occupied space or within tightly controlled areas will help overcome risk and make users of these areas feel safer.
Redesignate the use of space to provide natural barriers. Conflicting activities may be separated by distance, natural terrain, or other functions to avoid fear-producing conflict. Noise from a basketball game by teenagers or screaming children on monkey bars may be disruptive and frightening to senior citizens. The threat does not have to be real to create the perception of risk for the normal or desired user.
Improve scheduling of space. Generally, effective and productive use of spaces reduces risk and perception of risk for normal users. Likewise, abnormal users feel greater risk of surveillance and intervention in their activities. Well thought out temporal and spacial relationships improve profit and productivity while increasing the control of behavior.
Redesign or revamp space to increase the perception of natural surveillance. The perception of surveillance is more powerful than its reality. Hidden cameras do little to make normal users feel safer and therefore act safer when they are unaware of the presence of these devices. Likewise, abnormal users do not feel at greater risk of detection when they are oblivious to surveillance potential. Windows, clear lines-of-sight, and other natural techniques are often effective as the use of mechanical or organized (e.g., guards, police) methods.
Overcome distance and isolation. Improved communication and design efficiencies increase the perception of natural surveillance and control. It is desirable to create the perception of immediate access to get help if necessary. For example, restroom locations and entry designs may be planned to increase convenience and surveillance, yet reduce the cost of construction and maintenance.
source: http://www.cpted-security.com/cpted11.htm

5

NATURAL SURVEILLANCE

Surveillance strategies are a design concept directed at keeping intruders under observation. Organized surveillance strategies include police and guard patrols. Lighting and CCTV are mechanical strategies for surveillance, and natural strategies include windows, low landscaping, and raised entrances. Surveillance strategies are those directed at primarily keeping intruders under observation. Surveillance strategies are a design concept directed at keeping intruders under observation. Organized surveillance strategies include police and guard patrols. Lighting and CCTV are mechanical strategies for surveillance, and natural strategies include windows, low landscaping, and raised entrances.

Surveillance is the first principle of CPTED. Surveillance is the ability to look into an area, and the ability to look back out. It can be formal or informal. Things that inhibit surveillance are overgrown trees and shrubs, block walls and poor lighting. Surveillance strategies are aimed primarily at keeping intruders under observation and undesirable behavior under control. To improve surveillance, trim trees and shrubs, use fencing appropriately and utilize proper lighting techniques.

Placing eyes on the street was an idea that Jane Jacob's discovered during her work in New York's Greenwich Village. Placing legitimate eyes on the street, or capable guardians, can help to make a place unattractive to offenders, thus, preventing it from becoming a preference for them to commit crime. This can be accomplished by the proper placement of windows, adequate lighting, and removing obstructions to enhance sightlines.

Any architectural design that enhances the chance that a potential offender will be, or might be, seen is a form of natural surveillance. Often, it is not just the fact that the offender might be seen that matters. It is that the offender "thinks" they will be seen that can help deter the opportunity for crime.

Natural surveillance is naturally occurring. As people are moving around an area, they will be able to observe what is going on around them, provided the area is open and well lit. Natural surveillance is typically free of cost, but observers may choose not to get involved in any situation that may pose a potential threat to themselves or others. Other ways to achieve natural surveillance include landscaping, street design, and placing high risk targets in plain view of nearby residents, such as expensive cameras or display items near a sales clerk.

When surveillance cannot be achieved through natural means, sometimes mechanical means, such as using close circuit television, can be used. Mechanical surveillance employs the use of cameras, mirrors, and other equipment that allows an individual to monitor a remote or common area. Mechanical surveillance usually involves the purchase of moderately priced mirrors to the more expensive CCTV technology. Once the equipment is purchased , maintenance of these devices is a long term renewed cost as well as the organized cost of supervision. Who is watching the cameras and how are they responding when there is an incident. CCTV is best utilized for extraordinary behavior, not ordinary behavior. New technology is allowing critical incidents to be observed, recorded digitally, and activate and appropriate response.

Organized surveillance includes security patrols and other people or capable guardians who are organized to watch a targeted area. While this is the most effective deterrent to crime, it is also the least cost effective. While it may be necessary to employ security patrols or off-duty police, once the patrols are discontinued there is generally nothing left to show for your investment. But by far the most preferable method of surveillance is natural surveillance through good design.

ACCESS CONTROL

Natural access control strategies are intended to deny access to crime targets and to create a perception of risks to offenders. Access control is a design concept directed at reducing the opportunity and accessibility for crime. Organized methods of access control include security guards forces. Mechanical strategies include target hardening such as locks and card key systems. Windows may have protective glazing that withstands blows without breaking. Doors and window hardware may have special material and mountings which make them hard to remove or tamper with. Walls , floors, or doors may be specially reinforced in high security areas with materials that are difficult to penetrate. Natural methods of access control make use of spatial definition and circulation patterns. An example of natural design is the use of security zoning. By dividing space into zones of differing security levels, such as unrestricted, controlled, and restricted, sensitive areas can be more effectively protected. The focus of access control strategies is to deny access to a crime target and create in offenders, a perception of risk and detection, delay and response.

Effective access control is often the key to many security threats. Access control might be strongly considered in these areas:

  • all entrances and exits to the site and building
  • internal access points in restricted or controlled areas
  • environmental and building features used to gain access

(trees, ledges, skylights, balconies, windows, tunnels)

  • security screening devices (guard stations, surveillance,

identification equipment)

Access control is the second principle of CPTED. Because many criminals look for an easy escape, limiting access into an area and back out again is an effective way to deter criminal activity. Access control can be demonstrated by having one way into and out of a location, with devices such as a security post or the use of mechanical gates. Others who use "alternative methods" to enter an area look suspicious, stand out and risk detection and identification and increased risk of apprehension. It is important to assess how the intended users are entering the property. It is equally important to assess how others are entering the property as well. Look at perimeter fencing for damage and cut-through's. Look for footprints in the dirt and gravel, and wear patterns in the grassy areas. Determining the weak points will be the first step in correcting the problem.

There are three (3) types of access control to consider: Natural (or Environmental), Mechanical, and Organized. Natural/Environmental Access Control involves the use of the design features and circulation patterns.To keep trespassers from climbing over walls for instance, you could plant a hearty cactus in the area where it will be highly visible. The use of dirt berms or large rocks can also keep unwanted visitors from entering with a vehicle onto private property.

Mechanical Access Control includes the use of security gates, which have proven very effective at reducing auto thefts, burglaries, and drive-by shootings. Most perpetrators of these crimes to not want to exit the way they entered, as it gives witnesses the opportunity to record license plates and get better suspect information.

Organized Access Control entails the use of patrol or courtesy personnel to control who enters the property. Distribution of parking permits affixed to registered vehicles, will identify which vehicles belong to the residents. Enforcement of visitor parking and towing abandoned vehicles from lots and streets improves the image and milieu of being an environment supporting criminal activity.

Defining who uses a territory, or a place, is a major aspect of reducing crime opportunities. Access control includes creating a sense of turf, but it focuses on entry and exit points into buildings, parks, parking lots, and neighborhoods. Closing some entrance ways, and opening others in strategic locations, is one way of doing this.

Good security fencing and gates can accomplish access control. Sometimes simply locking one door, opening another, and notifying residents of the change can accomplish access control. In libraries and shopping mall stores, patrons are channeled past an attendant who can observe all those who enter and exit. Sometimes these places are equipped with electronic point of sales screening devices, but often merely having the access point controlled can be enough. Oscar Newman felt that apartments should channel residents through one or two common entrance ways, so that they get to know each other and so that access is controlled. That way intruders can more easily be identified. The same concept applies to who residential neighborhoods where gates and street closing can similar access control goals.

TERRITORIALITY

Defining who uses a territory, or a place, is a major aspect of reducing opportunities for crime. The concept is to turn a particular area over to a legitimate users of that place so that they will be more likely to adopt ownership over that defined place. This will make it less likely that persons who do not belong in place at risk will use it to commit criminal or nuisance behavior at high risk location. These adaptive behaviors is the concept of territoriality, or what Oscar Newman called "Defensible Space" ; reassigning physical areas so local people can be responsible for, and control, their own public environment. This does not automatically oust criminals, but it can render them more ineffective.

Territoriality can be accomplished by using a hierarchy of space, such as subdividing public spaces into semi-public and semi-private spaces. For example, a Starbuck's Coffee Shop which places chairs and tables onto the sidewalk directly in front of their store tends to reassign this public as part of Starbuck's territory. This can help deter loiterers from hanging in front of the store.

Similarly, symbolic property markers in the front yard of residential homes or apartment buildings, such as short fences, hedges and plantings, pavement stones, and front yard lighting, can demarcate the front area as belonging to residents in the building. This can make residents feel safer when entering or exiting their building; it can contribute to fewer burglaries, and it can reduce the opportunity for other crimes there.

Good territoriality demonstrates a sense of "ownership", alerting potential offenders that they don't belong there and they will be seen and reported., because undesirable behavior will not be tolerated. It has two (2) principle components: Defensible Space and Maintenance.

Defensible space is divided into four (4) categories: Public, Semi-public, Semi-private, and Private. Public areas are typically the least defensible. A car driving on a public street would not automatically arouse suspicion. If the street were a cul-de-sac, however this is a semipublic area. If there are only five homes in the circle, the driver would be expected to stop at one of the five homes or leave. Semi-private areas might include sidewalks or common areas around residential areas. While most people may not confront a stranger in a common area, they are likely to call the police it the person does not appear to belong there. Private areas are different in rental communities than in single-family home neighborhoods. In a typical apartment the private area may not begin until you actually enter into the unit. This is especially true if several units share a common balcony or stairways. In a single-family home neighborhood, may owners consider their front yard to be private, or defensible space.

There are many ways to establish defensible space. By planting low growing hedges or bushes, you will show a defined property line. By posting signs and stating groundrules such as "No Trespassing" or "No Soliciting," you have established the area is defensible space and removed the excuse for non-compliance or criminal behavior.

MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE

One CPTED strategy that can be helpful from the small scale to the large scales is the concept of management and maintenance. At smaller scales this means that how property management maintains a property is instrumental in creating a sense of place, or territory, for legitimate users of that space. If a rental property is well maintained, it shows that management, or the owner, cares for and will defend the property against crime and incivilities. A property that is not maintained may indicate that the management is not concerned about the property, and might overlook or ignore criminal activity.

Property management can be the building owners or assigned to property managers. Some residential multi-family housing have live-in resident managers. By having a manager live on the property they get to know intimately the problems both inside and outside of their properties. Management policy and procedures create the impetus to hire security patrols, have electricity bills paid so the light will turn on, hire the trash removal company to pickup garbage from dumpsters, pay a gardener to mow the grass and trim the overgrown landscaping. Management is the first step in property crime prevention with the screening of tenants, the wording and enforcement of lease agreements stating a zero tolerance drug and crime policy, the hiring of staff, the repair of broken items.

Crime often congregates in areas where there are dilapidated and abandoned buildings, in places where liter and graffiti are rampant, and where the area looks as though no one cares. Further, If the property has several city code infractions, a property manager may lose the ability to deal effectively with criminal activity. A person facing eviction may threaten to report infractions to the city if the manager proceeds. For example, a manager attempting to evict a troublesome tenant, might find that person who is facing eviction may threaten to report the infractions to the city if the manager proceeds with the eviction process. In this case the manager may be forced to look the other way. If the property had been maintained in a clean fashion there would be nothing to hold against management. More importantly the property would be more likely to attract legitimate users in the first place.

Management and maintenance go hand in hand. A property can be an award winning design, but it no one is there to make sure that the property is maintained, and bills get paid, and residents/tenants get screened, illegally parked cars get towed, and bad tenants get evicted, and the lights get turned on, then the property will quickly fall into disrepair and start attracting criminal behavior.

ACTIVITY SUPPORT AND GENERATORS

Activity support is a small and medium scale CPTED principle. It involves the appropriate use of building functional spaces such as recreational facilities and common areas. The objective with activity support is to fill the area with legitimate users so that any abusers will leave. It may be difficult to believe that filling an areas with legitimate users will cause the deviant users or abusers to leave. But the opposite is also true, for if you fill an area with deviant users, the legitimate users will withdraw.

To promote activity support utilize the common areas effectively. By incorporating seating areas, picnic areas, porches and other amenities in open areas, the legitimate users will participate in the normal day to day functions and maintain ownership of the property.

Ask yourself, is that land feature or physical structure being used as it was intended? Does the intended design fit the designated use, and if not, what is that causing the problem? Who are the intended users? Why are the legitimate users not using an area? Why are the criminals frequenting an area? Why is it inviting? What will discourage them?

For example, in recreational areas and parks, the City might use proper lighting and establish community rules to encourage the proper and safe use of facilities. For laundry facilities, exercise rooms, and game rooms, maintaining clear visibility and supervision by capable guardians can make sure the activities there support the intended uses and users.

Activity support means that in urban parks you might schedule community barbecues and sports activities to reinforce legitimate uses of the park. This can be the case with gazebo's in the neighborhood parks, which can be placed where drugs are sold. Scheduling legitimate activities in the gazebo can prevent this unwanted drug or gang behavior from happening.

Activity generators are land uses or urban features that generate plenty of local activity. They are neither positive nor negative, but they can generate opportunities for crime if they are poorly planned or operated. For example, they include telephone booths or automated bank machines in strip malls. Depending on where they are placed, and when they are used, these activity generators can cause problems. Drug dealers might use the phones for drug sales; the ATM may be the site of robberies.

Activity generators are considered large scale since they do not operate in isolation of the surrounding land uses. It is insufficient to place housing to encourage activities in a commercial area, if the housing is isolated into small pockets, without local amenities , and lacks sufficient services. People will not place their eyes on the commercial street if they have no reason to look outside.

On the other hand, some kids of activities, such as hot dog or flower vendors, can provide legitimate uses and surveillance in certain areas, such as, parking lots of football stadiums, thereby placing more eyes into the parking lot to deter theft from cars.

source: http://www.cpted-security.com/cpted17.htm

6

1) NATURAL SURVEILLANCE


Surveillance strategies are a design concept directed at keeping intruders under observation. Organized surveillance strategies include police and guard patrols. Lighting and CCTV are mechanical strategies for surveillance, and natural strategies include windows, low landscaping, and raised entrances. Surveillance strategies are those directed at primarily keeping intruders under observation. Surveillance strategies are a design concept directed at keeping intruders under observation. Organized surveillance strategies include police and guard patrols. Lighting and CCTV are mechanical strategies for surveillance, and natural strategies include windows, low landscaping, and raised entrances.


Surveillance is the first principle of CPTED. Surveillance is the ability to look into an area, and the ability to look back out. It can be formal or informal. Things that inhibit surveillance are overgrown trees and shrubs, block walls and poor lighting. Surveillance strategies are aimed primarily at keeping intruders under observation and undesirable behavior under control. To improve surveillance, trim trees and shrubs, use fencing appropriately and utilize proper lighting techniques.


Placing eyes on the street was an idea that Jane JacobÕs discovered during her work in New York's Greenwich Village. Placing legitimate eyes on the street, or capable guardians, can help to make a place unattractive to offenders, thus, preventing it from becoming a preference for them to commit crime. This can be accomplished by the proper placement of windows, adequate lighting, and removing obstructions to enhance sightlines.


Any architectural design that enhances the chance that a potential offender will be, or might be, seen is a form of natural surveillance. Often, it is not just the fact that the offender might be seen that matters. It is that the offender ÒthinksÓ they will be seen that can help deter the opportunity for crime.


Natural surveillance is naturally occurring. As people are moving around an area, they will be able to observe what is going on around them, provided the area is open and well lit. Natural surveillance is typically free of cost, but observers may choose not to get involved in any situation that may pose a potential threat to themselves or others. Other ways to achieve natural surveillance include landscaping, street design, and placing high risk targets in plain view of nearby residents, such as expensive cameras or display items near a sales clerk.


When surveillance cannot be achieved through natural means, sometimes mechanical means, such as using close circuit television, can be used. Mechanical surveillance employs the use of cameras, mirrors, and other equipment that allows an individual to monitor a remote or common area. Mechanical surveillance usually involves the purchase of moderately priced mirrors to the more expensive CCTV technology. Once the equipment is purchased , maintenance of these devices is a long term renewed cost as well as the organized cost of supervision. Who is watching the cameras and how are they responding when there is an incident. CCTV is best utilized for extraordinary behavior, not ordinary behavior. New technology is allowing critical incidents to be observed, recorded digitally, and activate and appropriate response.


Organized surveillance includes security patrols and other people or capable guardians who are organized to watch a targeted area. While this is the most effective deterrent to crime, it is also the least cost effective. While it may be necessary to employ security patrols or off-duty police, once the patrols are discontinued there is generally nothing left to show for your investment. But by far the most preferable method of surveillance is natural surveillance through good design.


2) ACCESS CONTROL


Natural access control strategies are intended to deny access to crime targets and to create a perception of risks to offenders. Access control is a design concept directed at reducing the opportunity and accessibility for crime. Organized methods of access control include security guards forces. Mechanical strategies include target hardening such as locks and card key systems. Windows may have protective glazing that withstands blows without breaking. Doors and window hardware may have special material and mountings which make them hard to remove or tamper with. Walls , floors, or doors may be specially reinforced in high security areas with materials that are difficult to penetrate. Natural methods of access control make use of spatial definition and circulation patterns. An example of natural design is the use of security zoning. By dividing space into zones of differing security levels, such as unrestricted, controlled, and restricted, sensitive areas can be more effectively protected. The focus of access control strategies is to deny access to a crime target and create in offenders, a perception of risk and detection, delay and response.


Effective access control is often the key to many security threats. Access control might be strongly considered in these areas: 

           * all entrances and exits to the site and building

           * internal access points in restricted or controlled areas

           * environmental and building features used to gain access

             (trees, ledges, skylights, balconies, windows, tunnels)

           * security screening devices (guard stations, surveillance,

             identification equipment)


Access control is the second principle of CPTED. Because many criminals look for an easy escape, limiting access into an area and back out again is an effective way to deter criminal activity. Access control can be demonstrated by having one way into and out of a location, with devices such as a security post or the use of mechanical gates. Others who use Òalternative methodsÓ to enter an area look suspicious, stand out and risk detection and identification and increased risk of apprehension. It is important to assess how the intended users are entering the property. It is equally important to assess how others are entering the property as well. Look at perimeter fencing for damage and cut-through's. Look for footprints in the dirt and gravel, and wear patterns in the grassy areas. Determining the weak points will be the first step in correcting the problem.


There are three (3) types of access control to consider: Natural (or Environmental), Mechanical, and Organized. Natural/Environmental Access Control involves the use of the design features and circulation patterns.To keep trespassers from climbing over walls for instance, you could plant a hearty cactus in the area where it will be highly visible. The use of dirt berms or large rocks can also keep unwanted visitors from entering with a vehicle onto private property.


Mechanical Access Control includes the use of security gates, which have proven very effective at reducing auto thefts, burglaries, and drive-by shootings. Most perpetrators of these crimes to not want to exit the way they entered, as it gives witnesses the opportunity to record license plates and get better suspect information.


Organized Access Control entails the use of patrol or courtesy personnel to control who enters the property. Distribution of parking permits affixed to registered vehicles, will identify which vehicles belong to the residents. Enforcement of visitor parking and towing abandoned vehicles from lots and streets improves the image and milieu of being an environment supporting criminal activity.


Defining who uses a territory, or a place, is a major aspect of reducing crime opportunities. Access control includes creating a sense of turf, but it focuses on entry and exit points into buildings, parks, parking lots, and neighborhoods. Closing some entrance ways, and opening others in strategic locations, is one way of doing this.


Good security fencing and gates can accomplish access control. Sometimes simply locking one door, opening another, and notifying residents of the change can accomplish access control. In libraries and shopping mall stores, patrons are channeled past an attendant who can observe all those who enter and exit. Sometimes these places are equipped with electronic point of sales screening devices, but often merely having the access point controlled can be enough. Oscar Newman felt that apartments should channel residents through one or two common entrance ways, so that they get to know each other and so that access is controlled. That way intruders can more easily be identified. The same concept applies to who residential neighborhoods where gates and street closing can similar access control goals.


3) TERRITORIALITY


Defining who uses a territory, or a place, is a major aspect of reducing opportunities for crime. The concept is to turn a particular area over to a legitimate users of that place so that they will be more likely to adopt ownership over that defined place. This will make it less likely that persons who do not belong in place at risk will use it to commit criminal or nuisance behavior at high risk location. These adaptive behaviors is the concept of territoriality, or what Oscar Newman called ÒDefensible SpaceÓ ; reassigning physical areas so local people can be responsible for, and control, their own public environment. This does not automatically oust criminals, but it can render them more ineffective.


Territoriality can be accomplished by using a hierarchy of space, such as subdividing public spaces into semi-public and semi-private spaces. For example, a Starbuck's Coffee Shop which places chairs and tables onto the sidewalk directly in front of their store tends to reassign this public as part of Starbuck's territory. This can help deter loiterers from hanging in front of the store.


Similarly, symbolic property markers in the front yard of residential homes or apartment buildings, such as short fences, hedges and plantings, pavement stones, and front yard lighting, can demarcate the front area as belonging to residents in the building. This can make residents feel safer when entering or exiting their building; it can contribute to fewer burglaries, and it can reduce the opportunity for other crimes there.


Good territoriality demonstrates a sense of ÒownershipÓ, alerting potential offenders that they donÕt belong there and they will be seen and reported., because undesirable behavior will not be tolerated. It has two (2) principle components: Defensible Space and Maintenance.


Defensible space is divided into four (4) categories: Public, Semi-public, Semi-private, and Private. Public areas are typically the least defensible. A car driving on a public street would not automatically arouse suspicion. If the street were a cul-de-sac, however this is a semipublic area. If there are only five homes in the circle, the driver would be expected to stop at one of the five homes or leave. Semi-private areas might include sidewalks or common areas around residential areas. While most people may not confront a stranger in a common area, they are likely to call the police it the person does not appear to belong there. Private areas are different in rental communities than in single-family home neighborhoods. In a typical apartment the private area may not begin until you actually enter into the unit. This is especially true if several units share a common balcony or stairways. In a single-family home neighborhood, may owners consider their front yard to be private, or defensible space.


There are many ways to establish defensible space. By planting low growing hedges or bushes, you will show a defined property line. By posting signs and stating groundrules such as ÒNo TrespassingÓ or ÒNo Soliciting,Ó you have established the area is defensible space and removed the excuse for non-compliance or criminal behavior.


4) MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE


One CPTED strategy that can be helpful from the small scale to the large scales is the concept of management and maintenance. At smaller scales this means that how property management maintains a property is instrumental in creating a sense of place, or territory, for legitimate users of that space. If a rental property is well maintained, it shows that management, or the owner, cares for and will defend the property against crime and incivilities. A property that is not maintained may indicate that the management is not concerned about the property, and might overlook or ignore criminal activity.


Property management can be the building owners or assigned to property managers. Some residential multi-family housing have live-in resident managers. By having a manager live on the property they get to know intimately the problems both inside and outside of their properties. Management policy and procedures create the impetus to hire security patrols, have electricity bills paid so the light will turn on, hire the trash removal company to pickup garbage from dumpsters, pay a gardener to mow the grass and trim the overgrown landscaping. Management is the first step in property crime prevention with the screening of tenants, the wording and enforcement of lease agreements stating a zero tolerance drug and crime policy, the hiring of staff, the repair of broken items.


Crime often congregates in areas where there are dilapidated and abandoned buildings, in places where liter and graffiti are rampant, and where the area looks as though no one cares. Further, If the property has several city code infractions, a property manager may lose the ability to deal effectively with criminal activity. A person facing eviction may threaten to report infractions to the city if the manager proceeds. For example, a manager attempting to evict a troublesome tenant, might find that person who is facing eviction may threaten to report the infractions to the city if the manager proceeds with the eviction process. In this case the manager may be forced to look the other way. If the property had been maintained in a clean fashion there would be nothing to hold against management. More importantly the property would be more likely to attract legitimate users in the first place.


Management and maintenance go hand in hand. A property can be an award winning design, but it no one is there to make sure that the property is maintained, and bills get paid, and residents/tenants get screened, illegally parked cars get towed, and bad tenants get evicted, and the lights get turned on, then the property will quickly fall into disrepair and start attracting criminal behavior.


5) ACTIVITY SUPPORT AND GENERATORS


Activity support is a small and medium scale CPTED principle. It involves the appropriate use of building functional spaces such as recreational facilities and common areas. The objective with activity support is to fill the area with legitimate users so that any abusers will leave. It may be difficult to believe that filling an areas with legitimate users will cause the deviant users or abusers to leave. But the opposite is also true, for if you fill an area with deviant users, the legitimate users will withdraw.


To promote activity support utilize the common areas effectively. By incorporating seating areas, picnic areas, porches and other amenities in open areas, the legitimate users will participate in the normal day to day functions and maintain ownership of the property.


Ask yourself, is that land feature or physical structure being used as it was intended? Does the intended design fit the designated use, and if not, what is that causing the problem? Who are the intended users? Why are the legitimate users not using an area? Why are the criminals frequenting an area? Why is it inviting? What will discourage them?


For example, in recreational areas and parks, the City might use proper lighting and establish community rules to encourage the proper and safe use of facilities. For laundry facilities, exercise rooms, and game rooms, maintaining clear visibility and supervision by capable guardians can make sure the activities there support the intended uses and users.


Activity support means that in urban parks you might schedule community barbecues and sports activities to reinforce legitimate uses of the park. This can be the case with gazeboÕs in the neighborhood parks, which can be placed where drugs are sold. Scheduling legitimate activities in the gazebo can prevent this unwanted drug or gang behavior from happening.


Activity generators are land uses or urban features that generate plenty of local activity. They are neither positive nor negative, but they can generate opportunities for crime if they are poorly planned or operated. For example, they include telephone booths or automated bank machines in strip malls. Depending on where they are placed, and when they are used, these activity generators can cause problems. Drug dealers might use the phones for drug sales; the ATM may be the site of robberies.


Activity generators are considered large scale since they do not operate in isolation of the surrounding land uses. It is insufficient to place housing to encourage activities in a commercial area, if the housing is isolated into small pockets, without local amenities , and lacks sufficient services. People will not place their eyes on the commercial street if they have no reason to look outside.


On the other hand, some kids of activities, such as hot dog or flower vendors, can provide legitimate uses and surveillance in certain areas, such as, parking lots of football stadiums, thereby placing more eyes into the parking lot to deter theft from cars.


source: http://www.cpted-security.com/cpted20.htm

7

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is based on the premise that "proper design and effective use of the physical environment can produce behavioural effects that will reduce the incidence and fear of crime, thereby improving the quality of life. These behavioural effects can be accomplished by reducing the propensity of the physical environment to support criminal behaviour" (Crowe, T. (1991) Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: Applications of Architectural Design and Space Management Concepts. Stoneham, MA: Butterworth-Heinnemann).

8

Greg Saville and Gerry Cleveland discuss this holistic theory, or the ‘marriage of CPTED and Community Oriented Policing,’ in their article entitled Second Generation CPTED (1997). Second generation CPTED recognizes the most valuable aspects of a safe community lie not in structures of the brick and mortar type, but rather in structures of family, of thought and, most importantly of behavior. We may benefit from starting with an examination of the physical aspects of place, but we must end up looking at the social aspects of home and neighborhood — the affective environment. Second generation CPTED offers the promise of greatly enhanced, and more realistic, preventive strategies, equally important, it offers the possibility of a new approach for community building.”

source: http://www.calea.org/newweb/newsletter/No79/crimeprevention.htm

Forget alarms. Forget stiff prison sentences. Even forget about police presence. One of the best deterrents against crime is called CPTED. You've never heard of CPTED?

It stands for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, and is among the most pro-active crime-fighting approached you can adopt.

CPTED can be applied widely, to businesses such as shopping malls and industrial/commercial parks, but is also to residential areas, schools, institutions, parks, and playgrounds. It is based on a simple theory: that the proper design and effective use of a physical environment can help reduce the incidence and fear of crime.

This approach can mean such basic changes as turning a store manager's desk around so that they can observe the sales floor better - it costs nothing, it's common sense, and it's highly effective.

Traditionally, the "target-hardening" approach focuses on the use of physical or artificial barriers to deny access to a crime target - locks, alarms, fences, gates and the like.

This approach often works well, yet places a constraint on the use, access and enjoyment of the "hardened" environment. Beyond that, many "natural", less obtrusive opportunities to deter crime were overlooked.

CPTED revolves around three strategies:

Natural Surveillance: Keep potential intruders under observation.

Natural Access Control: Decrease the crime opportunity.

Territorial Reinforcement: Create or extend a sphere of influence through a physical design, so that the users of an area develop a sense of ownership over it.

These points seem basic, and in effect they are. They see surveillance, access control and the resulting crime reduction as a by-product of the normal and routine use of the environment. The Three D's

All this sounds quite vague, so let's get a bit more specific. Some of the particular CPTED strategies are listed below. To know which to use, you must first assess the physical environment you're looking to protect by running through the three D's.

All space has a Designated purpose. It has social, cultural, legal or physical Definitions that suggest the desired and acceptable behaviours. And it's Designed to support and control those behaviours. These are some of the questions that follow the three D's.

What is the designated purpose of the space? How well does the space support its current use? Its intended use? Where are the space's borders? Is it clear who "owns" it? Are the legal or administrative rules clearly set out and reinforced? Are there signs? Does the physical design conflict or impede with the productive use of the space? Is there confusion over the way that the physical design is intended to control human behaviour?

Answer these questions, and you can begin to apply some of the most common CPTED strategies: 

   * Clearly define the borders of the controlled space.

   * Clearly mark the transitional zones that indicate movement from semi-public to private space.

   * Relocate gathering areas to spots with natural surveillance and access control.

   * Place unsafe activities in "safe" spots. You'll overcome the vulnerability of these activities with the safe area's natural surveillance and access control. Place safe activities in "unsafe" locations to increase the perception of safety within these areas.

   * Redesignate the use of space to provide natural barriers to conflicting activities.

   * Improve the scheduling of space to allow for effective use.

   * Redesign the space to increase the perception or reality of natural surveillance.

   * Overcome distance and isolation through improved design efficiencies and communications.

What does all this mean in practice? Let's look at one example of a local restaurant that received a CPTED review from Peel Regional Police Constable Tom McKay of Crime Prevention Services.

One recommendation was to improve the sightlines to the outside by removing unnecessary clutter (e.g. bushy plants, promotional material) from the take-out window. Another suggestion was to improve the sightlines within the restaurant by removing the planters that divided the dining room and waiting area.

Both these recommendations aimed to make the take-out/waiting area seem less private - and therefore more intimidating - to someone who might want to rob the place. The changes also gave the staff a greater chance to observe potential offenders before a robbery.

A third recommendation suggested repairing defective ceiling lamps around the take-out area, and increasing the number of fixtures. From a psychological standpoint, the improved lighting discourages a would-be offender. In case of a robbery, staff and customers could also give better descriptions of the offenders.

As with all CPTED activities, the goal isn't to create a totally crime-free environment. That's impossible. The objective is to simply reduce the probability of crime by designing and using an environment in a way that naturally deters offenders.

http://www.peelpolice.on.ca/prevention/cpted.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paleorthid (talk • contribs) 04:36, 22 November 2004 (UTC)

3.0 Example from article.

I deleted the example, "For example, have your neighborhood BBQ in your back yard, not your front yard," from the Natural territorial reinforcement section, Restrict private activities to defined private areas subsection. My understanding of CPTED is that BBQs are fine in the front or back yard. I think a better example would be, "Do not design an apartment building so it is not clear if front yards are public or private." That is still clunky, maybe someone else has a better example. Doshwa 05:12, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

Latest comment: 11 years ago3 comments3 people in discussion

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 05:55, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

"It has only been since the introduction of 2nd Generation CPTED that CPTED has finally made constructive attempts to enhance social cohesion and build a strong sense of community to impact the motives that cause crime in the first place." This sentence seems to imply that the lack of a strong sense of community is what "causes crime in the first place". In fact, the whole point of situational prevention is that all kinds of people will commit crime if the situation is optimal - the chimeric search for this or that psychological or sociological drive in the offender has more to do with conventional criminology. So either change this, or I will delete it. :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.143.138.33 (talk) 19:02, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

I have deleted the last paragraph of the "Effectiveness and Criticism section, as it links to a broken URL. "The area of liability has led to the questioning of how much crime prevention is really necessary for a given place. It has been mooted that a risk management approach might be superior to a fear-driven one.[1] The question is, "does a community give up too much freedom, usually in terms of movement and assembly, to be free from fear of crime?" This was a question that was not widely asked in the 1990s; note the rise around the world of gated communities and the use of CCTV in public spaces." The last sentence is a non-sequitur - CCTV cannot detract from anyone's freedom to do anything, although it might discourage criminal behaviour. It also seems like somebody's unreferenced opinion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.158.16.35 (talk) 03:43, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ http://www.rudi.net/pages/8864

NPOV

Latest comment: 11 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

If this wasn't a company, I would consider this as advertising: "Changing the areas we reside in to deter criminals from committing acts in our communities is the main goal of CPTED. With urban design and the planning that goes in to the creation of new and reformation of older communities, citizens in these neighborhoods and places of business can feel safer at all hours." 67.190.95.53 (talk) 16:01, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Minor Revision for Consideration by Citizen Houston

Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Reference: CPTED at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_prevention_through_environmental_design#Four_obstacles_to_adopting_CPTED

Section: Natural territorial reinforcement

Paragraph (bulleted):

♦ Avoid cyclone fencing and razor-wire fence topping, as it communicates the absence of a physical presence and a reduced risk of being detected.


After careful consideration and carefully examining my personal experience with some of the CPTED concepts on a multi family property here in Houston Texas, I firmly believe that the above objective that is either outdated or not applicable.

Instead the objective should read as follows:

♦ Chain link fencing and razor-wire fence topping communicates a physical risk to anyone seeking in breaching the enclosed perimeter.

I do not believe anyone, especially those in law enforcement, has any evidence proving that a residential or commercial property without fencing is safer than a property with fencing.

thank you,

— Preceding unsigned comment added by HoustonCitizen (talk • contribs) 20:05, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

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