Crime Prevention Through Physical Design Through Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

The altering of an area or location through physical design to impact crime is crime prevention. The ideas of this came from Oscar Newman’s concept of “defensible space”, this model inhibits crime through physical expression. There were also four elements of Newman’s “defensible space”; they are territoriality, natural surveillance, image, and milieu. The other elements are access control, target hardening, and activity support. Territoriality refers to a sense of ownership over an area and the owners take actions to protect their estate. Symbolic territoriality refers to change of ownership through changes of signs and landscaping. Real territoriality refers to physical barriers put in place

For example if a building has multiple entrances with less security measures, then the crime rate in that building would be higher than a building with fewer entrances with security measures in place. There are three types of changes in crime prevention. Type one measures the direct impact of physical design like fences and lights. Type two is the impact of the physical barriers with a variety of intervening factors. The intervening factors would the feelings, attitudes, and the efforts of the community to fight crime with the physical barriers adding to the intervention. Type three is the direct and indirect influence of the physical design from intervening factors. There are a variety of factors that influence the physical design on the fear of crime. The increase of street lighting, the installations of locks, alarms, cameras, and property identification programs help with the decrease of

If you look around now there are cameras everywhere from your local gas stations, stores, traffic lights, major businesses, and a majority of your parking lots. The modern technology of what the cameras can do from zooming in, recording, and tilting to watch for specific incidents of crime. Lets take a look at a recent activity that a cameras have been used to detect criminal activity that happened. That would be the case with the Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte where video from Rio shows that him and his fellow swimmers were drunk and tearing up a local business bathroom, then being approached by a man in uniform while they got into a car. This shows that you are always being watched if you know it or not. Another incident is getting a traffic ticket in the mail for running a stoplight without getting pulled over by a police officer. Cameras are really starting to have a major impact from the littlest to the largest of criminal