NCJ Number
77608
Date Published
1980
Length
227 pages
Annotation
This handbook guides community planners through the stages common to most Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) programs: initiation, analysis, planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Abstract
CPTED is an attempt to reduce crime and fear in a target setting by reducing criminal opportunity and by recruiting the support of individuals, organizations, and businesses who use that setting. The emphasis is on prevention rather than on apprehension and punishment. Because CPTED operates by altering the opportunity for crime, the manual describes the dimensions and types of opportunity changes that can be made and the characteristics of crimes amenable to the CPTED approach; it also addresses the problem of crime displacement. It suggests activities that should take place during the initiation phase; i.e., reviewing the CPTED concept and deciding whether it holds promise for the local situation, selecting a site for the project and clearly setting forth its scope and goals, drafting a preliminary work plan, and preparing a detailed management plan. In the analysis phase, besides developing and answering several fundamental questions about crimes occurring at the target site, planners are urged to collect and analyze data and to formulate crime-environment problem statements. These statements can be used to select CPTED strategies. The next phase, planning, requires the selection of specific strategies and the development of a plan for implementing them. Guidelines for the selection of strategies and targets and for the weighting of tactical alternatives are given. A catalog of tactics is provided as a reference aid for communities developing a project plan. The tactics have been grouped under the headings of surveillance, movement control, activity support, and motivation reinforcement. A description of the implementation phase focuses on funding sources, the participation structure, implementation of the plan, public relations, and information dissemination. Finally, the types of evaluation that can be performed, the various research designs, and potential problems in the evaluation process are examined. Footnotes, references, charts, maps, and other illustrations are found throughout the text. A list of selected sources and suggested survey instruments are appended.