CPTED Design Out Crime

Words: 1672
Pages: 7

As indicated by its self-explanatory name, CPTED is just that: preventing crimes through designing certain places throughout an area in a strategic manner. According to Dr. C. Ray Jeffrey in 1971, “The proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the fear of crime, and to an improvement in the quality of life” (Designing Out Crime, n.d.). Although it may seem fairly simple, the CPTED method when utilized properly contains a variety of considerations. These considerations can be broken down into three main categories which include natural surveillance, natural access control, and territorial reinforcement (Chick, 1997). Natural surveillance is the idea that the area should allow for the keeping of potential …show more content…
As with any good methodology, CPTED has undergone changes since its foundation which have helped it to improve and stay up to date on society’s changing features and demands. The earliest mentions of CPTED were found in the words of Jane Jacobs in the year 1961 (Parnaby, 2006). Jacobs criticized the professional planning industry, proposing that disorder and decline in urban areas were partially due to poor design and planning (Parnaby, 2006). She argued that communities be re-conceptualized in ways that would strengthen the sense of community in the area (Parnaby, 2006). Ten years later, in 1971, this theory was brought into light again by C. Ray Jeffery who published a work entitled Crime Prevention through Environmental Design which criticized criminal justice professionals for their apparent inability to comprehend the nature of criminal activities and how they could be prevented (Parnaby, 2006). Jeffery went on to write about the importance of understanding the relationship between physical, environmental, and psychological elements (Parnaby, 2006). The following year, in 1972 was when Oscar Newman flaunted the significance of how design related to crime prevention (Parnaby, 2006). In his publication called Defensible Space, it is clear that Newman was convinced that the corrosion of public …show more content…
Some of the most notable changes were put forth in 1980 by Taylor, Gottfredson, and Bower (Taylor & Harrell, 1996). Their approach to CPTED was dubbed the “second generation” defensible space and took into consideration some important ideas that helped CPTED adapt to the times (Taylor & Harrell, 1996). These researchers more carefully considered the aspects of different locations and how they played a role in how CPTED was utilized in that particular location in conjunction with the social and cultural features there (Taylor & Harrell, 1996). For example, they found that factors such as how much informal social control residents had over an area, how much they used outdoor spaces, and the cultural and ethnic make-up of the area all should be considered when implementing CPTED (Taylor & Harrell, 1996). More recently, in 2000, Timothy Crowe added access control to the list of fundamental ideas in CPTED (Parnaby, 2006). Another idea which has since been added to the list but not considered as prominent as Crowe’s is population control through the strategic scheduling of social activities, proposed by McInnis and Burgess (Parnaby, 2006). Clearly, there are variations to the way CPTED is applied and what is taken into consideration, but all of them relate back to the idea of a certain area altering the social and