Starley Cross Community Safety Project
CRIME PREVENTION THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) aims to reduce opportunities for crime using the built environment (Cozens et al 2015). Rational choice theory (Clarke and Cornish 2010), the awareness space concept of crime pattern theory (Brantingham and Brantingham 2008) and routine activity theory (Cohen and Felson 1979) all believe that environmental characteristics explain crime rather than offender characteristics. Effective design of the environment can reduce crime and fear of crime, improving resident’s quality of life (Crowe 2000: 46). This is achieved through enhanced surveillance opportunities, clearly marked boundaries between public and private space and ensuring that the area has a well maintained positive image.
Environmental design has been used for centuries as a method of protection. Historically used in Iron-age forts and castles, with design features including: landscaping, walls, drawbridges and moats, which were able to control who could gain access to the building (Schneider and Kitchen 2002).
More recently CPTED focuses on safety and security as important components of a city which functions well (Jacobs 1961).
1. Clear boundaries between public and private space.
2. All public space should be visible to residents.
3. Public spaces should be densely populated.
According to Jacobs (1961) a safe city must incorporate three coinciding elements:
In recent years CPTED has evolved with the creation of second generation CPTED, which focuses on the increased importance of social dimensions within society. It extends ideas further than physical design and focuses on social programs and community participation to promote self-policing by the community (Saville and Cleveland 2008).
These concepts show the clear contrast between first and second generation CPTED, with obvious differences between the focus of the two, with the first focusing on the buildings within the community and the second focusing on the community itself.
Second-Generation CPTED has four key concepts:
Social Cohesion
Community Connectivity
Community Culture
Threshold Capacity
A key element that second-generation CPTED focuses on is inclusion and community participation. Functional and safe communities are made up of people that can generate and implement practical ideas for enhancing their neighbourhoods, as well as actively participating in neighbourhood modification (Cozens et al 2015).
Oscar Newman (1972) examined the relationship between crime rates and the design of public housing, arguing there was a correlation between specific design features and a reduction of crime rates. He compared two social housing projects, which revealed higher crime rates for the project with high rise apartment blocks, despite tenant populations in both projects being considered as similar. This caused Newman to consider that the architectural design of the buildings was a factor that could explain a variation in crime rates between the two housing projects.
High-rise flats contain mazes of corridors and public areas which have limited surveillance opportunities. Newman found that over half of all the crimes committed, took place in locations that had greater opportunities for concealment and lower levels of visibility to residents. Large public areas within these flats, could become underused and poorly maintained, thus failing to encourage a positive sense of ownership (Newman 1973).
With environmental changes in place, offenders feel more visible to society and may feel at a greater risk of being caught acting illegitimately.
Maintaining the area properly can encourage a sense of ownership amongst residents thus giving the area a sense of community and pride.
Based on the ideas of CPTED, Newman (1973) came up with the concept of defensible space. It was the first comprehensive way of explaining the ways in which environments could be built and used to increase their security and protection against crime and criminal activity (Renald 2015).
Burglary is a crime which is rife throughout Starley Cross. It is also a crime which depends on the layout of an area to make it possible to commit it.
There are four main categories which have been established for the process of estimating a targets suitability. 1. Familiarity (Block and Bernasco 2009). 2. Occupancy (Reynald and Elffers 2009). 3. Potential Rewards (Macintyre 2001) 4. The Built environment (Cozens et al 2005).
Defensible space is made up of four elements, which can be used individually or in a combination, in order to create an environment which is safer for residents:
TERRITORIALITY
SURVEILLANCE
IMAGE & MILIEU
GEOGRAPHICAL JUXTAPOSITION
Clearly defining ownership of property with both symbolic and actual barriers.
Provide opportunities for surveillance for both residents and others using building configuration and placement of windows and entrances.
Promoting, clean and well maintained areas
Surrounding spaces to influence the security of adjacent areas and vice versa.
With the built environment being one of the main categories in the process of choosing an appropriate target. It is essential that Starley Cross has areas which are well designed, in order to lead to a decrease in the rates of burglary, which there are currently a high amount of.
All Coast Locksmiths (2015)
Changing how the area of Starley Cross looks and implementing some of these design features has the potential to reduce the amount of crime being committed and reduce the feelings of fear that residents have.
Wix (2015)
Wix (2015)
