The application of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a proven approach to enhancing residential environments in relation to safety and security. With a focus on a detailed examination of prevailing physical conditions, the primary goal is the optimization of comfort and social well-being of individuals and families who reside there.
According to renowned CPTED pioneer Mr. Timothy Crowe, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is defined as: “The proper design and effective use of the built environment that can lead to a reduction in the fear and incidence of crime and an improvement in the quality of life.” Crowe further elaborates by stating: “CPTED’s goal is to reduce opportunities for crime that may be inherent in the design of structures or in the design of neighbourhoods”.
In a related way, the defensible space theory of architect and city planner Oscar Newman encompasses ideas about crime prevention and neighbourhood safety. Newman argued that architectural and environmental design plays a crucial part in increasing or reducing criminality. His theory was developed in the early 1970s and he wrote his first book on the topic, Defensible Space in 1972. Throughout his study, Newman focused on explaining his ideas on social control, crime prevention, and public health in relation to community design.
Stakeholder Perception of Crime & Disorder
Safety and security perception by all stakeholders is a critically important variable due to the stark reality this is home to affected persons where they will spend a bulk of their daily time. In this regard, the incidence of crime or problematic activity, or the perception of such by residents, will significantly influence how comfortable people feel and whether this is where they want to stay. Such perception ultimately influences how residents, visitors, and employees, all of whom have some discernible stake in the property, will feel in terms of their own safety and security and the general climate of crime and disorder for the area in general. Housing providers therefore carry a stake in the vitality and well-being of affected properties. Their actions are directed at improving the overall social climate, becoming a driving force to ensuring long-term safety and social comfort for all.
Criminogenic Factors Influencing Unlawful Behaviour
Criminogenic factors – those underlying conditions and situations that cause or are likely to cause criminal behaviour. These are strongly correlated to outcomes of criminal or disorder-based activity. While it is very difficult, if not impossible, to pinpoint a single factor as the primary root cause of triggering unlawful activity that occurs within residential environments, it is not unreasonable to conclude that any combination of these influential and often interrelated factors are likely at play. These would include elements such as the presence of individuals residing at the same property who have previous or ongoing records demonstrating criminal behaviour/actions; substance abuse prevalence onsite; and physical vulnerability of the property, all of which make it more attractive to criminal gain by unlawful means. Recognizing criminogenic factors is a key step in taking measures to mitigate them.
Incidents Requiring Police Response & Intervention
The unique social and physical characteristics that each property possesses can be drastically different from one another due to a number of key elements. These can include differing neighbourhood land use and demographic dynamics, state of physical maintenance/upkeep, and the presence or absence of effective safety and security features of the property that promote comfortable living conditions. Any differences in some or all of these elements can present differing safety and security challenges, requiring customized solutions to ensure all conditions for optimizing such are addressed.
Impact on Economic & Social Well Being
Like all communities throughout Canada, a neighbourhood’s housing infrastructure is typically known to represent its social epicentre. Vibrant neighbourhoods are therefore critical to the community’s overall economic and social health where high levels of comfort by all stakeholders dictate how viable and functionally valuable a particular area is and can be. It can therefore be inferred, arguably, that safety more than any other variable carries the most prominent role in achieving the necessary, ongoing comfort that maintains a neighbourhood’s vitality. Resultantly, a strong and focused emphasis on ensuring that each neighbourhood’s housing infrastructure remains safe and secure is paramount to sustained economic and social well-being for all.
Environmental Criminology Profile of Subject Properties
To gain a proper understanding of potential safety and security impacts, features associated with each property’s unique, environmentally triggered criminological profile are typically examined. Observations are made from an environmental criminology perspective – that being: the study of crime, criminality, and victimization in relation to particular places and the way that individuals shape their activities spatially in and around those places. In so doing, stakeholders are in turn influenced by how place-based or spatial factors may affect criminal patterns within a particular built environment, including an analysis of the impacts of these external variables on people’s cognitive behaviour. It applies social scientific methodology to examine potential causes of crime. The principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) are creatively used to assess how key physical, place-based variables and factors influence crime and disorder in any residential area; namely, via natural surveillance, territorial reinforcement, access control, activity management, target hardening, and behaviour engineering.
The quantity and nature of the kinds of incidents that residents call the police to attend to provides a very good “social barometer” of prevailing conditions that affect safety and security. This data is invaluable in customizing any actions taken to improve conditions for residents and visitors. Typically but not exclusively, the types of incidents that occur most often at residential properties requiring police response and intervention include fights and disorderly conduct, break and enter, threats and harassment, noise, theft, insecure premises, assault, neighbour trouble, vandalism, drugs, and suspicious persons & vehicles.
Barry A. Horrobin, B.A., M.A., CLEP, CMM-III is a Planner and Environmental Criminologist who works in the law enforcement profession and is an independent consultant. Barry currently serves on the CPTED Canada Board of Directors.