Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

Introduction

Many people wonder what they can do to prevent crimes from occurring.  Crime prevention through environmental design or CPTED is an effective way to deter crime.  CPTED is defined as the "proper design and effective use of the environment that can lead to a reduction in the fear and incidence of crime, and an improvement in the quality of life" (Peak and Glensor 89).     

3 Principles

Natural Access Control-This includes objects such as shrubs, trees, door and gates.  These objects are used to prevent entrance to an area and make the criminal feel as though the target is to dangerous to attack.

Natural Surveillance- This includes objects such as lighting, windows and landscaping to show that people care about the area.

Territorial Reinforcement-  This includes objects such as sidewalks and porches.  Sidewalks are a sign of a connected community and porches provide people places to watch the neighborhood from.  

Information needed for CPTED

There are 5 pieces of information that are needed in order for CPTED to be effective. The first is crime analysis information from a crime analysis specialist.  This includes crime mapping, incident reports and victim and offender statistics.  Another important bit of information is the demographics of the area.  These are the people that lives their such as race, gender and ethnicity.  The third bit of information that is needed is the land use information.  This includes information on how the land is being used.  Such as if there are school or park zones.  The fourth bits of information needed are observations of the area.  Is the area well kept?  Are there any broken windows?  If so it could mean not many people care about the area and that makes it an easy target to criminals.  The last bit of information that is necessary for CPTED is resident information.  This is found out by completing crime surveys and interviews with them.  With this information in hand police are able to give recommendations to neighborhoods and stores to help them take measures to prevent crimes from occurring against them.