Decades ago, the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, bustled with the work of textile mills. But as that manufacturing shifted elsewhere and overseas, the area fell into disrepair. Mills were abandoned, vacant lots dotted the landscape, and crime took root.
That was the reality the community faced several years ago when a partnership of residents, police, businesses, and city agencies—intent on rehabbing Olneyville—decided to adopt a relatively new approach in planning: crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Eight years later, the neighborhood has seen a renaissance and is safer and more vibrant than in years past. The success is in large part thanks to CPTED’s emphasis on improvements such as upgraded lighting in public areas, new sidewalks, and elimination of remote or dark paths.
The concept for this approach to development dates to the 1971 book Crime Prevention through Environmental Design by criminologist C. Ray Jeffery. Jeffery’s five prongs of CPTED are:
- Natural surveillance: taking steps—such as limiting shrubs and adding lighting—to increase the perception that people can be seen.
- Natural access control: differentiating private and public space through design elements such as paths and fences.
- Natural territorial reinforcement: making it clear that property is not up for grabs—that it is either private or public—through design additions such as signage.
- Maintenance: keeping private and public properties well maintained to communicate the sense that the space is being used.
- Activity support: creating visual cues and active spaces, such as “children playing” signs and bike trails, to indicate that the space is being used and watched.
Derek Paulsen, planning commissioner for Lexington, Kentucky, and a professor of criminal justice at Eastern Kentucky University, says Jeffery introduced the idea that crime arises, in part, from the opportunities presented by the physical environment. It follows, then, that changing a neighborhood’s physical environment can help reduce crime.
Although CPTED is widely embraced in the United Kingdom—where it is known as “secured by design”—only spot programs exist in the United States. Often initiated by one or two police officers who have taken certification courses, CPTED is not yet “baked into all new developments,” says Paulsen. “Police have generally viewed crime prevention as important, but not as important as core work such as patrols and investigations,” says Paulsen. In contrast, the United Kingdom’s Association of Chief Police Officers has endorsed secured by design. That key backing leads to stronger support from the government and insurance agencies—and from developers.
Meanwhile, CPTED has been drawing attention from another sector: public health officials. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), a professional association of top public health officials, has developed policy guides that showcase cross-sector collaboration, including one focused on housing and CPTED. The goal is to highlight what ASTHO calls a “health in all policies” approach that integrates health considerations into policy making and programs across sectors to improve public health.
Public health initiatives that benefit from CPTED include Safe Routes to School programs—a national effort to get kids to walk and bike to school—and joint use agreements, which give community residents after-hours access to facilities such as public school playgrounds.
A recent study by George C. Galster, professor of urban studies and planning at Wayne State University in Detroit, explains how a neighborhood’s social environment—such as supportive social networks, local norms, and peer influences—affects health. The study listed neighborhood violence among environmental hazards such as pollution that can lead to poorer health outcomes. According to his analysis, the chronic stress of living in highcrime, high-poverty neighborhoods with deteriorating buildings can affect parenting, with consequences to a community’s children.
Developers and public health officials may count CPTED among their tools for breaking through neighborhood safety concerns. For example, Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha (Association of Puerto Ricans on the March), a Philadelphia-based nonprofit community development organization, found CPTED principles to be valuable in supporting public safety near the Paseo Verde housing complex adjacent to the Temple University transit station in Philadelphia. In partnership with the Jonathan Rose Companies, the association created Paseo Verde as a mixed-income, mixed-use, health-focused development. The principles have helped restore local playgrounds as welcoming recreational areas, which can increase resident satisfaction and reduce the incidence of childhood illnesses related to inactivity.
Paulsen, an expert on CPTED, says he has seen an uptick in information requests about this type of design. He uses a simple analogy to explain the concept’s benefits to developers, builders, planners, and police: “It’s much easier to make changes with a pencil at the design stage than it is to make changes with a bulldozer after construction.”
Maya Brennan, vice president of the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing, is managing editor of the How Housing Matters website.
