ENT 526 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Gated Community, Environmental Design, Crime Prevention
4 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Crime Prevention and The City II: Situational
Crime Prevention; Crime Prevention Through
Environmental Design and Gated Communities
Outline
• Last week wrap-up
o Remove Von Hirsch and Shearing reading
• Situational crime prevention (SCP)
• Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)
• Critiques of SCP/CPTED
• Gated communities
• Harm reduction
What is situational crime prevention? (SCP)?
• Opportunity-reducing measures that
o Management or design of the immediate environment, manipulating the
environment, doing something to the environment
o Make crime more risky or less rewarding
o Focused on settings for crime not those committing the crimes, those committing
the crimes are less relevant, it’s the settings, the location
o Theoretical premises
▪ Routine activities theory – lack of an capable guardian, motivated offender
and a suitable target
▪ Crime pattern theory – realizing that particular crimes take place in
particular moments, your house is more likely to be broken into during the
day when everyone is at work and school, and offices are more likely to
get broken into during the night
▪ Rational choice theory – there are mini rational calculators whether to
make rational choices or not, example – I am willing to take your laptop if
I am not going to get in trouble for it
SCP: Clark’s (1992) typology
1) Increase the effort
• Target-hardening
o Physical barriers, physical protection to stop and offender from getting their hands
on your things, i.e. lockers, locks
• Access control
o Regulating who enters, i.e. bank pin
find more resources at oneclass.com
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• Deflecting offenders
o Deter capacity to engage in crime, things that deter potential offenders from the
capacity or the temptation to commit a crime, i.e. soccer fans, there are separate
entrances for opposing fans so they do not see them
• Controlling facilitators
o Addressing certain items that could be used to facilitate crime
o I.e. plastic cups so you do not hurt anyone
2) Increase the risk
• Entry/exit screening
o I.e. bag searches, making sure no one is bringing something that they shouldn’t
• Formal surveillance
o I.e. police officers, security guards, citizens patrols
• Natural surveillance
o Legitimate users can see and be seen
• Surveillance by employees
o I.e. undercover security
3) Reduce the rewards
• Property marking
o Something to mark your property if it gets stolen
o I.e. VIN number
• Target removal
o Remove the common targets of crime all together
o The theory to put an open cash register in the window to prevent robbers from
breaking in, i.e. displaying empty register
• Reducing temptation
o Gender neutral phonebooks
o I.e. don’t list the first name, just list the first initial
• Denying benefits
o Dye packs, rob a bank, the teller will comply with you and throw in a dye pack
which will eventually explode onto all the money
Can you think of some critiques of situational crime prevention (SCP)?
Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
