Crime prevention strategies and effectiveness

Crime Prevention, Design

Most of the crimes one hears or reads about are violent in nature: In 2005, there was an estimated 1.3 million violent crimes in the United States (UCRP website). However, the number of property crimes is not something to ignore. For the same year, 10.2 million property crime thefts were reported. Although most of these crimes involve little financial loss -- the average amount stolen only $1,725 -- the emotional damage because of personal invasion and fear, especially by older individuals and the disabled, is considerable. In addition, only a low percentage of burglers are found. In the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCRP), property crime includes the offenses of burglary, arson and larceny and motor vehicle theft, with the main object of taking money or property with rarely any force or threat against the victims. An estiated 10.2 million property crimees were reported during 2005. The police alone cannot provide all the solutions to property crime. Homeowners and communities must learn to work together to keep their areas as safe as possible through programs such as neighborhood watch. In fact, of all burglary offenses in 2005, 65.8% were of residential structures (UCRP).

Studies show that property crime can also be prevented by manipulating the design of the separate properties and their relationship to each other and the surrounding neighborhood. This process is called crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). The overall impact of CPTED by itself continues to be controversial. Specialists are more prone to accepting the fact that it is one of many measures that taken together can prevent or reduce crime.

The early 1970s saw a growth of interest in the possibilities of altering the constructed environment to deter or prevent delinquency and crime. C. Ray Jeffery's Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (1971) and Oscar Newman's Defensible Space (1972) discussed how urban design, such as the design of streets, parks, terminals and highways could reduce the opportunity for crime. Newman looked at statistics and found that highrise buildings with areas isolated from public view, such as lobbies, elevators, fire escapes, roofs and corridors view had much higher crime rates than low-rise buildings. In the 1980s, the concept of opportunity of crime was followed up by Mayhew (1979) for the UK Home Office Research Unit and Canadian researchers Brantingham and Brantingham (1981, 1991).

In the late 1990s and 21st century, most of the information on the value of CPTED is anecdotal through case studies. Empirical studies are difficult to find, especially those that have been peer reviewed. One of these was a study by Cater et. al (2003) who researched the impact of a CPTED in Sarasota, Florida in the North Trail Corridor study. In 1990, the city incorporated CPTED strategies to revitalize its North Trail area, where aging buildings, restrictive zoning codes, and prostitutes near the U.S. 41 discouraged economic investment and lowered the quality of life. After the addition of police patrols and arrests significantly reduced the prostitution and drugs in the area, city planners designed a new zoning district. It required that outside lighting be installed and maintained for building entrances, walkways and parking lots. In addition, there had to be landscaping with ground cover and canopy trees that allowed visibility, demonstrated ownership, and enhanced the pedestrian environment. The buildings had porches, balconies and residential areas above street-level retail space and parking that was shared by residential and business users in order to discourage illegal behavior and make the environment more comfortable for legitimate behavior.

For 1990 through 1998, police data were available for the North Trail Corridor and for the rest of the city of Sarasota to evaluate changes in crime. Compared with the rest of Sarasota, from 1990 to 1998 the North Trail Corridor experienced decreases in calls for police service and prostitution. Crimes against persons and property were not significant (Carter et. al. 2003),. Two points need to be raised about this study concerning the overall value of CPTDE. First, these findings were mixed in their significant results. Second, the use of police in crime patrol and cleanup cannot be ignored.

A similar case was researched in Harbordale in St. Petersburg, Florida. Like Sarasota's North Trail District Harbordale was a distressed neighborhood in an otherwise upscale retirement community. Consisting of approximately 2,300 residents living in 1,437 single and multiple-family dwelling units, this predominantly African-American community was seriously declining in the mid-1990s. Its structures and infrastructures were far below city-wide standards, with a high proportion of vacant, abandoned and dilapidated buildings and poor property. Between 1992 and 1995, the area's crime rate was significantly higher than the city's, with drug activity, assaults, robbery, burglaries and prostitution (Kitchen and Schneider, 2001, p. 159)

The centrally located mangrove swamp area was one of the major environmental problems that kept from resolving crime issues, according to the residents. Mangroves consist of dense woody plants found in tropical climates worldwide. They are protected by Florida State law. Unattended, they can grow to heights of 20-30 feet as in Harbordale. The wild mangroves bisected the neighborhood and formed a complete visual barrier from one side to the other. Due to inadequate street lighting, they provided a convenient place to dump trash and stolen goods and consummate drug and prostitution deals. In addition to working on the mangrove issue, their were other changes in infrastructure improvements, such as speed ramps, road striping and sidewalks, housing demolitions and acquisitions, street beautification and signage, and the planning and development of a common space. This was again coupled with community policing.

St. Petersburg planners value these changes with increasing property values, 4.55 per cent rise in 1996-1997 and a 5.5 per cent increase in 1997-1998, and a significant decline in the crime rate. This has been reflected in a steady drop in the area's Uniform Crime Rate index, which slid from 390 in 1995 to 298 in 1996 and from 292 in 1997 to 222 in 1998 (Kitchen and Schneider, 2001, p. 159).

The National Institute of Justice has some of the best documented residential cases, such as Solving Crime in Residential Neighborhoods: Comprehensive Changes in Design, Management and Use (Feins et al., 1997), which provides extensive research and evaluations of four residential areas where place-based crime-prevention research were conducted. These were Castle Square Apartments in Boston, Lockwood Gardens in East Oakland, California, Genesis Park in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Oak Park, Illinois. One National Institute of Justice study with empirical evidence for a place-based, situational crime prevention use in residences is Eck and Wartell's (1996) research regarding nuisance abatement programs in San Diego. In a randomized and controlled study, the authors found that letters threatening landlords with property seizures for illegal drug dealing were effective in significantly reducing such activity over a six-month period. Although similar programs tended to find comparable results, this was the only residential study to rate a the highest score for the most rigorous research methods in by JIT (Sherman et al., 1997).

NIJ does say that these cases "suggest" that place-based crime prevention approaches that are designed to meet the needs of certain neighborhoods do indeed reduce crime, although they are not "prove" this is the result. "In practice, it would be as difficult as untangling a spider web to evaluate the effectiveness of specific place-based crime prevention measures applied to these residential areas" (Cozens, 2005, p. 328). Also, although crime data back the thesis that place-based applications work, "the physical, management and community organizational interventions in these cases are woven together in complex ways that defy individual analysis" (Cozens, 2005, p. 328).