Crime Prevention

Through
Environmental
Design - CPTED
SC6000
 • C. Ray Jeffrey coined the term ‘crime prevention through
environmental design’ – his book of same name was
published in 1971
• His concept, CPTED, enjoyed more support than his
general theory of criminal behaviour

Designing out • Oscar Newman played a significant part in development

crime… of ’designing out crime’ – book, Defensible Space: Crime
Prevention through Urban Design (1973)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swGf6F45maw
 • Evidence-Based Criminology - Since 1970s greater
emphasis on criminal events rather than just
offenders
• Opportunities play a role in causing crime
• ‘When Willie Sutton was questioned why he robbed
banks he is said to have replied, Because that's where
the money is’ (Cocheo, 1997).
Crime as • So reduction of crime must focus on reduction of
opportunities
opportunity • Routine Activity Theory – ecological approach
• Rational Choice Theory – psychological
approach
• Crime Pattern Theory – environmental approach

• Crime Science – Evidence-based and outcome

focused (UCL – Jill Dando Institute)
 • Routine Activity Theory
 Crime occurs when three elements (a motivated
offender, a suitable target and absence of capable
guardian) converge in time and space in the course of
daily activities (Cohen and Felson, 1979)

• Rational Choice Perspective

 Theory that views criminal behaviour as rational and
assumes that people will offend when the benefits
Opportunity outweigh the costs/risks involved (Cornish and Clarke,
2013).
Theories • ‘When Willie Sutton was questioned why he robbed
banks he is said to have replied, Because that's where
the money is’ (Cocheo, 1997).

• Crime Pattern Theory

 Building on routine activities approach by attempting
to account for the patterned non-uniformity and non-
randomness that characterizes the criminal event (Pat
and Paul Brantingham, 2016)
 Multi-agency
responsibility
• Opportunity theories grew in popularity during 1990s – also increasing recognition that police alone cannot
reduce crime opportunities.

• Alongside this…the Morgan Report (1991) – recognition that crime reduction is not just a job for the police –
recommends multi-agency responsibility for the reduction of crime opportunities.

• Crime and Disorder Act (1998) – responsibility placed on relevant authorities to consider crime and disorder
in every decision that they make.

• Many relevant agencies – thinking outside of traditional interventions.

 • “If individuals commit crime as a response to
opportunities that arise and these opportunities are
shaped by these individuals’ views of the environment
surrounding them, it follows that crime can be reduced
through the manipulation of the environment. Crime
prevention interventions which aim to achieve this
Crime reduction include SCP and CPTED” (Armitage, 2013: 20).

- CPTED • CPTED:
• Crime reduction through design and manipulation
of built (and sometimes natural) environment
• Ideally designing out crime before it occurs –
pre/planning stages
• Sometimes post-development as crime problem
has emerged
 • No one strict definition
• Armitage (2013:23) offers a useful
definition which considers the increasingly
widening focus of CPTED:
Defining CPTED • “…the design, manipulation and
management of the built environment
to reduce crime and the fear of crime
and to enhance sustainability through
the process and application of
measures at the micro (individual
building/structure) and macro
(neighbourhood) level”.
 • Range of measures

• Three basic strategies:

CPTED • Natural Access control

• Natural Surveillance
• Territorial Reinforcement

• Important to consider such measures at design

and planning stage – expensive and potentially
ineffective to add in later (Atlas, 2008).
 • According to Armitage (2013)

• Limit the likelihood that offenders will become

aware of that area as a potential target

• Make it more difficult for offenders to navigate in

and out of an area they may have selected as a
potential target

Access Control • To increase the physical difficulty of entering

building/space

• To increase the psychological difficulty for offenders

to enter and move around an area without feeling
conspicuous

• To remove any excuses for potential offenders to be

within a private or semi-private space and maximise
legitimate users confidence in challenging non-
legitimate users of that space.
 • Maximise ability of formal and informal users of
space to observe suspicious behaviour.
• Capable guardians
• Formal: police, security, employees.
• Informal: residents, shoppers, visitors,
passers-by

Surveillance • CCTV

• CPTED more concerned with informal surveillance

• Entrances face the street
• More active rooms face the street
• Sightlines not obstructed by shrubbery/fences

• Creating a perception among offenders that they are

being observed
 • Human emotion/response to space they define as their own
• Physical response: gate,sign
• Emotional response: feelings of intrusion
• Human motivation to control the space they believe is theirs
through legal ownership or adoption and management of that
space.

Terrirtoriality • Defensible Space (Newman, 1973)

• Public: road
• Semi-public: front garden
• Semi-Private: back garden
• Private: inside the property
• Should be clear to owner and non-legitimate users who should
and who should not be in that space
• CPTED clearly demarcates space – potential offenders have no
excuse to be in that space
• Most often more subtle than physical barriers
 • Surveillance
• Will I be seen here???

• Access
Offender… • Can I get in and out of here easily???

• Territory
• Who cares about this place and what happens
here???
Surveillan
ce
 Surveillance

44 evaluations – “examined
the effect of CCTV across four
main settings: city and town
centers, public housing, public
transport, and car parks.

It was found that CCTV was

associated with a 16%
reduction in crime, which was
a significant effect. This effect
Welsh, Brandon & Farrington, David. (2009). Public Area CCTV
was driven by a 51% reduction
and Crime Prevention: An Updated Systematic Review and
in crime in the car park
Meta-Analysis. Justice Quarterly - JUSTICE Q. 26.pp, 716-745..
schemes, with CCTV in the
other settings having small
and nonsignificant effects on
22 adult male burglars shown 16 images
(Armitage, 2017)

“Whilst none of the offenders used the

specific term ‘surveillance’, all referred
to the concept and all considered this to
be a clear deterrent in target
selection(p,17)”

Threats and benefits associated with

surveillance included
“1) Being observed by residents,
neighbours or passers by – thus
offenders preferred limited surveillance
from others (p,17)”

Surveillance
Territor
y
Looked at territoriality
(territorial physical markers in
gated communities) in Lahore.

“The results suggested that

residents viewed territorial
physical markers as extension
of their house and believed
that these provided a physical
safety net extending a sense
of home” (Nosheen, Ajmal
and Haque, 2021:3).

Territory
Access
Effective
???
 UK - Secured By Design
• What is it?
• “SBD is the UK Police flagship initiative supporting the principles of Crime Prevention Through
Environmental Design (CPTED) for a range of applications in housing and the built
environment” (Teedon et.al., 2009:1).

• What it involves?
• Encouraging the building industry to design out crime at the planning stage – in response to rises in household burglary.
• https://www.securedbydesign.com/about-us/about-sbd
• https://www.securedbydesign.com/guidance/design-guides
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ghdCSYhPA

• Evaluations examples
• https://www.securedbydesign.com/guidance/research-case-studies-guidance/re-evaluating-sbd-housing-in-west-yorkshire/viewdocument/199
• https://www.securedbydesign.com/guidance/research-case-studies-guidance/secured-by-design-impact-evaluation-2009/viewdocument/209
 • Costs estimated based upon cost of building to SBD standard
and costs of crime
• Costs involved in building property to SBD standard are minimal
(few hundred pounds)
• Savings recouped via crimes prevented within very short space
Designing out of time, 1 to 2 yrs

crime?? • Pease and Gill (2011) argue that calculations ignore wider
economic and social costs, for example the premature
– destruction of housing stock

Costs and • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PHiWjQVuWg

benefits • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfrHnAIlGtg&t=0s

• Mann (2015) - “contrary to dominant visual depictions, a

Metropolitan Police report detailing crime statistics from 1998
to 2003 indicates that the Heygate experienced a crime rate at
45% below the borough average (Better Elephant 2014)”.
Evaluating SCP • What works?

and CPTED • Lots of evaluation research available on

interventions CPTED interventions across the globe
https://whatworks.college.police.uk/toolkit/Pages/Toolkit.aspx
 • EFFECT
• Effect direction and size: How effective is it?

• MECHANISM
• Mechanism/s or mediator/s: How does it work?
INTERVENTIO
NS AND • MODERATOR
• Moderators: In what contexts does it work?
EMMIE • IMPLEMENTATION
FRAMEWORK • Implementation conditions: What
supports/obstructs delivery?

• ECONOMIC
• Economic assessment: What is the cost
effectiveness?
 • EFFECT
• Overall, the evidence suggests that CCTV has reduced crime,
but there is some evidence that it has increased crime.
• MECHANISM
• a) Deterrent effect; b) actual risk; c) informal surveillance; d)
EXAMPLE - improving citizen awareness; e) community pride; f)
deployment of security personnel; g) reducing criminal
opportunities; (However, none are empirically tested).
EFFECTIVENE • MODERATOR

SS OF CCTV • a) Most effective in car parks (crime decrease by 37% and

12% in residential areas) ; b) more effective in UK than US
• IMPLEMENTATION
• More effective when a) active monitoring; b) large area
covered; c) combined with other measures
• ECONOMIC
• Not Examined.

(College of Policing, 2021).

 SOME CRITICISMS

• SIMPLISTIC AND ATHEORETICAL

• IGNORES ROOT CAUSES OF CRIME
• IGNORES OFFENDER
• DOESN’T APPLY TO IRRATIONAL CRIME
• DISPLACEMENT
• PRIVILEGE OF THE RICH
• BLAMES THE VICTIM
• INVASIVE AND OPPRESSIVE
• CREATE A FORTRESS SOCIETY

• “CRIME PREVENTION THROUGH EXCLUSIONARY DESIGN” ( OZENS AND LOVE, 2017 - EXPLORE
C
LAST YEARS QUESTIONS!!!
NOT FOR THIS ASSESSMENT