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Concept
Crime prevention through environmental design
Summary
Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) is an agenda for manipulating the built environment to create safer neighborhoods.
It originated in the contiguous United States around 1960, when urban renewal strategies were felt to be destroying the social framework needed for self-policing. Architect Oscar Newman created the concept of 'defensible space', developed further by criminologist C. Ray Jeffery who coined the term CPTED. Growing interest in environmental criminology led to detailed study of specific topics such as natural surveillance, access control and territoriality. The "broken window" principle that neglected zones invite crime reinforced the need for good property maintenance to assert visible ownership of space. Appropriate environmental design can also increase the perceived likelihood of detection and apprehension, known to be the biggest single deterrent to crime. There has also been new interest in the interior design of prisons as an environment that significantly affects decisions to offend.
Wide-ranging recommendations to architects include the planting of trees and shrubs, the elimination of escape routes, the correct use of lighting, and the encouragement of pedestrian and bicycle traffic in streets. Tests show that the application of CPTED measures overwhelmingly reduces criminal activity.
CPTED was originally coined and formulated by criminologist C. Ray Jeffery. A more limited approach, termed defensible space, was developed concurrently by architect Oscar Newman. Both men built on the previous work of Elizabeth Wood, Jane Jacobs and Schlomo Angel. Jeffery's book, "Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design" came out in 1971, but his work was ignored throughout the 1970s. Newman's book, "Defensible Space: – Crime Prevention through Urban Design" came out in 1972. His principles were widely adopted but with mixed success. The defensible space approach was subsequently revised with additional built environment approaches supported by CPTED.
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