Question

Briefly introduce the concept of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) by summarizing two or three examples of CPTED principles that offer alternatives to active surveillance.

Answer 1

Environmental Design (CPTED) as a crime prevention strategy.CPTED is both an increasingly fashionable approach and is being implemented on a global scale (Cisneros, 1995). 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 in such an approach by central government. The authors detail the difficulties associated with demonstrating the effectiveness of CPTED and conclude that although empirical proof has not been definitively demonstrated, there is a large and growing body of research, which supports the assertion that CPTED is a pragmatic and effective crime prevention tool. This review provides an extensive bibliography of contemporary CPTED and a follow-up paper will discuss the future research priorities for CPTED.

There are many definitions and interpretations of sustainable development and various models exist for the sustainable city, ranging from ‘light green’ to ‘dark green’. This paper discusses the ‘redesigning the city’ model and investigates the extent to which crime and fear of crime are integrated within this framework and argues that crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) represents a useful planning tool to assist in the development of urban sustainability. Analysts tend to focus on levels of recorded crime, largely ignoring the crucial and arguably more important dimension of citizens’ fear of crime and their perceptions of the built environment. This paper provides recommendations for integrating crime and fear of crime within urban sustainability. It also proposes that ‘designing out crime’, also known as CPTED, represents a vital tool for assisting in the creation, development and promotion of more user-friendly and sustainable urban environments.