Criminology Research Council grant ; (8/80)
The project investigated the planning, design, and management of community facilities and other public developments with attention to crime prevention. Research activities involved three main components:
- Case studies of numerous public developments.
- An extensive review of the literature in crime prevention and the design and management of public developments.
- Structured and unstructured interviews on crime prevention with architects, planners, and a variety of public administrators.
The research primarily focused on a number of carefully selected case studies of public developments and community facilities with respect to crime prevention through environmental design. This 'environmental' approach to crime prevention encompassed not only the planning and physical design of developments, but their management as well. Case studies varied from small housing estates and small public libraries to very large housing estates and complex multi-functional community centres and shopping developments. Specific crime prevention design and management criteria were utilised in the evaluation of each development studied.
This research was often more descriptive and qualitative than quantitative, emphasising a process and policy orientation. This meant that much research effort was spent on examining questions such as: relationships between government departments; interaction between architects and managers, or between managers and staff, or managers and users; levels of knowledge and expertise of personnel involved in developing and managing facilities; and institutional reactions to problems of crime and vandalism.
The research did not attempt to prove statistically that crime can be prevented through environmental design as this relationship had been investigated at length by others. The study hypothesised at the beginning that there was an important link between not only the physical design, but the planning and the management of public developments. Each of the case studies showed that these components can directly affect criminal behaviour in and towards a facility. However, the case studies also showed that such links are usually complex. While environmental methods can influence the level of crime, by no means is it the total answer to such problems. Nevertheless, the environmental approach is usually the only one readily available to designers, planners, and managers. Utilising such an approach is often highly cost-effective as well.
The major research report concluded with a number of policy recommendations, which included:
- Further research in the area of environmental crime prevention.
- More use of post-occupancy evaluations of facilities.
- Training in crime prevention for planners and architects.
- Greater inclusion of crime prevention considerations in physical planning.
- Training for police in understanding physical design.
- Amendment of housing and building codes to include security standards.
- Development of security design and planning guidelines.
- Greater emphasis on good facilities management.
- More local area collection of crime statistics.
- Better record-keeping of crime and vandalism incidents of facilities.
- Special attention to the problems and needs of youth.
- Support for 'community responsibility' projects.
- Encouragement of interagency coordination in crime prevention programs.
- Evaluation of crime prevention programs.