The Importance Of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

Defining the crime problem is a vital step in controlling crime. Crime is undoubtedly a significant and pricey societal problem but we cannot target the problem without first defining it. There is no one identical solution to crime, instead it is based on a piece by piece basis. Strategies to target crimes need to target larger geographical areas, sometimes entire states. In addition, for a strategy to be successful in controlling a crime it cannot be too vague or extremely specific to an index crime. An example of a crime a law should target is: drug sales in a problem neighborhood or rapes at a city park. –Chapter 1 Page

Routine activity theory states that for a crime to be committed, three important factors need to be present including: a motivated offender, an accessible target, and the absence of a capable guardian against a violation. Marcus Felson and Lawrence E. Cohen introduced the routine activity theory in 1979, where they believed that an individual who has these three characteristics gives them a greater possibility of committing a crime. Moreover, situational crime prevention is known as strategies of ways for preventing or reducing the opportunities for criminals to commit crimes that derive from the routines of an individual’s everyday life. Ronald V. Clarke introduced situational crime prevention theory in 1983, where he believed that removing the situation instead of removing the criminal could prevent crime. In this paper, I will be discussing what routine activity/situational crime prevention theory is, and apply two peer-reviewed articles from Google Scholar that test the routine activity/situational crime prevention theory by discussing what the authors are trying to figure out and discuss their findings, and lastly, tie the routine activity/situational crime prevention theory articles to our textbook in hopes to fully understand in depth what the theory encompasses.

Crime is a difficult concept to define as everyone is different in the way they think and because it varies so greatly. It also depends on what stage of time we are in and how we perceive things. This is because the idea of crime also draws upon how an individual, or a set of individuals are linked with the society. For some people crime is an act that breaks a law which is made to keep the society safe. However, some

There are numerous different types of strategies for crime reduction. These include crime prevention tactics which are suitable for whole societies, and also forms of punishment which are suitable for individuals. Crime prevention strategies include situational crime prevention, environmental crime prevention, and social and community crime prevention.

CPTED stands for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. The idea behind CPTED is that effectively using the environment can drastically reduce the act and fear of crime leading to an overall better quality of life. The four principles of CPTED are natural surveillance, natural access control, territorial reinforcement, and maintenance and management (Tan, Cheong, p.4). Breaking down each one of these principles is very important. Natural surveillance is based on the idea that criminals do not want to be watched. The main goal of natural surveillance is to watch intruders. “Natural surveillance can be achieved by a number of techniques. The flow of activities can be channeled to put more people (observers) near a potential crime area” (Tan, Cheong, p. 4). The next principle to break down is natural access control. Natural access control is used by relying on physical elements to keep unauthorized people out of a certain dwelling. Third, territorial

Environmental criminology examines how geographical location and features in that location affect crime. It argues that some environments are more prone to crime that others.

Continuing on how there must be other ways to reduce crime, modern law enforcement is currently focused on preventing crime before it actually occurs. Crime prevention is possibly our biggest ally in helping us to decrease crime in the United States. Suppose your next-door neighbor has had someone break into their home and your entire neighborhood is scared of being the next victim. So, you and the rest of your neighborhood set up a neighborhood watch and have police scan the area ever so often. Chances are the thieves or criminals will not want to risk being caught so they avoid the area and your neighborhood is safe once more.

The Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is an excellent course structured on reducing crime by adding light to dark areas where foot traffic frequents, reducing blind spots within parking structures to assist with avoiding ambushes, as well as encouraging communities to place a special focus on dilapidated structures with their communities. This course was hosted at University of Tennessee a few years ago, I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend. There are is a real connection between dilapidated structures to crime rates, the broken window theory is something we have all learned about throughout of careers in law enforcement. The role of law enforcement is key in these areas, they assist with identifying structures creating a hazard, lowing the safety of the residents, as well as locations where criminals tend to gather (George Mason University, n.d.). The disorder of a neighborhood can cause residents to be fearful forcing them to retreat from their home conversely lock themselves in not watching the areas around them creating an environment for more serious crime to move in. A community-based approach would need to be taken by law enforcement in conjunction with other city officials to remedy these situation. Speaking from personal knowledge, this approach is assisting with crime rates within

According to Buscaglia & Dijk (2003), crime control theories are generally fundamental for intellects, professionals, security forces,

Moving on to the concept of defensive space in regards to CPTED, it will be connected to the prior discussion of deterrence theory and rational choice theory. In 1973, architect Oscar Newman published a book titled Defensible Space, Crime Prevention through Urban Design. His examinations of urban residential communities displayed how physical design was linked to the victimization by criminals. Newman’s work exploring the concepts of natural surveillance, human territoriality, and the alteration of existing structures to efficiently reduce crime, became the foundation for what later became known as “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design” (FEMA, 2013).

Situational crime prevention constitutes primary crime prevention measure. This is to say that it is aimed at deterring crime before it occurs. Situational prevention, like other similar primary prevention measures, focuses on subduing crime opportunities instead of the attributes of criminals or even potential criminals. It seeks to curtail opportunities for certain groups of crime by increasing the risks and difficulties associated with them and significantly reducing the rewards. Situational prevention is made up of three key elements: a sound theoretical framework, an authoritative methodology for dealing with specific crimes, and a collection of opportunity-reducing approaches (Felson & Clarke, 1997).

Crime in this country is an everyday thing. Some people believe that crime is unnecessary. That people do it out of ignorance and that it really can be prevented. Honestly, since we live in a country where there is poverty, people living in the streets, or with people barely getting by, there will always be crime. Whether the crime is robbing food, money, or even hurting the people you love, your family. You will soon read about how being a criminal starts or even stops, where it begins, with whom it begins with and why crime seems to be the only way out sometimes for the poor.

CTPED or Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design is defined as “The prevention strategy which outlines how the physical environments can be designed in order to lessen the opportunity for crime.” (Queensland Police Department.) CPTED not only is defined by this definition, but it focuses on four more characteristics that help to make this design work effectively, and smoothly. These four characteristics are: maximizing the risk that offenders face, maximizing the effort required by offenders to commit crimes, minimizing the benefits that offenders can gain from committing crimes, and finally minimizing the excuses for opportunities toward offenders. COP is defined as “Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues, such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.” (Community Policing Defined." Community Policing Dispatch). CPTED and COP are methods that promote strong communities to deter crime, and provide the community with alternatives to stop crime from ever happening in the first place. As well as these definitions, the strategies of COP, and CPTED, these strategies are based off of the broken windows theory. The broken windows theory is the theory that states once criminals see an area that is under-patrolled, they will commit more crimes

The focus of this paper will be based upon different crime prevention strategies implemented by members of the communities, local and government authorities.

Crime exists everywhere in the world – in rural and urban areas in many countries, in the East and West, and among all types of people. This has led many government officials, especially those in urban areas, to focus largely on the reduction of crime among their respective constituencies and has led others to speculate on the factors that influence the amount of crime and how those factors can be controlled. Crime has been around since man and there is no doubt that it will continue to be around, until there is an existence of a perfect world. But for now, we