Background
Crime prevention strategies require a range of multifaceted programmes aimed at combating and preventing a specific offence or category of offences. Internationally, the potential of reducing crime through the appropriate planning and design of the physical environment has been recognised for decades and it is being included in local crime prevention strategies in many countries. South Africa's National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) has highlighted crime prevention through planning and design as one of the four pillars of the strategy. Recognising that this was a poorly understood element of crime prevention in South Africa, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology awarded an Innovation Fund contract to the CSIR in collaboration with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) to conduct research into this area in order to provide guidance on its use in South Africa.
In support of the Department of Safety and Security the CSIR / ISS team embarked on a project that investigated the link between crime and spatial planning, urban and architectural design, and the use and management of the physical environment. This project represented the first conscious effort in South Africa to address crime in terms of its relation to the physical environment within our local context. It supported the NCPS in its endeavour to empower communities, local authorities, law enforcement structures etc. with regards to the creation of safer living environments for all South Africans.
The aims of the project were to put the concept of crime prevention through planning and design on the agenda of local authorities, planners, architects, the safety and security fraternity etc. and to promote the development of pro-active crime prevention strategies that include measures that can be implemented in the physical environment to reduce crime and the fear thereof.
One of the outputs of the project is a document that deals with crime, and the fear thereof, in South African cities and towns and identifies the physical settings in which different types of crime occur. The publication also provides design and management recommendations aimed at improving the quality of the built environment in order to reduce the opportunities for crime.
This publication is currently being updated and will be published on behalf of the Department of Safety and Security towards the end of 2000. It will provide practical guidelines on measures that can be implemented in order to create safer physical environments.
Some of the issues addressed in the publication include:
- The dangers posed by open spaces and vacant land and how to reduce the opportunities they provide for criminal activities.
- How to reduce the opportunity for crime through well-planned pedestrian routes, appropriately designed informal trading areas, mixed use and extended hours of use of facilities.
- The appropriate use of lighting in parks, along streets and pedestrian routes etc.
- The importance of efficient maintenance of public facilities.
- Why a high wall around a property may not be the most effective security measure.
- Designing safe parks and playgrounds.
Key issues
Understanding crime is critical to its prevention. Whether or not a crime occurs depends on the interaction of several elements. These elements include: the physical and social environment in which crime occurs, the presence of active or passive forms of surveillance, the perpetrator and the target or victim of a crime. The form of the built environment can influence a range of these factors and several design factors are fundamental in designing to reduce crime.
IMPORTANT ISSUES TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT
- Environmental Design measures should be linked to social development and other crime prevention initiatives.
- Crime Prevention through Environmental Design should be locally driven with community participation in all aspects.
In the past, interventions have largely focussed on the wealthier parts of the city, where they are easier to implement, rather than those areas with the greatest need or where the most impact is likely. Identifying appropriate areas and crime problems for environmental design to target, requires detailed case studies and the analysis of crime patterns in particular localities.
In contrast to townships and informal settlements, areas like the inner city, often considered to be the natural targets of design interventions, have comparatively low levels of certain crimes. But the crimes that are prevalent in these public places (for example mugging and robbery) are particularly likely to raise citizens' fear of crime. This impacts on the way the city is used and, by implication, its growth and development.
Recent crime studies have identified three major areas for intervention in terms of crime prevention and these coincide with the three prevailing urban conditions currently in need of attention in South Africa. They are:
- preventive action (pro-active crime preventive development) on undeveloped sites or areas;
- inner city restructuring as part of overall urban restructuring; and
- the upgrading of informal settlements incorporating crime preventive principles.
Generally, all South Africans appear to display high levels of fear of victimisation. However, those who fear crime the most are not generally those who have the greatest chance of being victimised. Furthermore, fears of crime do not necessarily match patterns of victimisation, nor can they be associated with places where levels of victimisation are comparatively low. Many citizens also perceive themselves to be threatened by the chance of becoming victimised, whether or not they have been a victim of crime in the past. Given this situation, crime prevention through environmental design will not only serve to address occurrences of crime, but also perceptions towards it and the fear of crime in particular areas of the built environment.
Unfortunately, many of the planning practises of the past that led to the problems in our cities and towns have not changed. Settlements for the poor are still being designed in ways that promote sprawl and leave tracts of open land that promote criminal activity. Schools, clinics, sporting and other community facilities are not provided in a co-ordinated manner, although it may form part of the physical planning of new developments. This results in living environments that are unsafe and unsustainable.
It is clear that our cities and towns will continue to be unsafe unless there is a fundamental change in our approach to town planning and urban design.
Current status and way forward
The project has put the CSIR at the forefront with regards to crime prevention through environmental design and has provided them with the capacity to assist local authorities, SAPS, planning and design professionals, community groups etc. with support in this regard. Further CSIR research into other issues related to crime and the physical environment includes a study of the trend to enclose neighbourhoods and the effect this has on the city as a whole. The CSIR is also doing research on the development of community safety plans through participatory processes focussing especially on a community-driven process for identifying local crime problems and the role of the environment in this regard. Given the extent of the crime problem in South Africa, much more research into the field of crime prevention through planning and design is needed in order to ensure that longer-term crime prevention strategies are successful.
Stakeholders
SAPS Crime Prevention Division
Philip Nel
Institute for Security Studies
Antoinette Louw
Contact details
Tinus Kruger
Tel: (012) 841 2595
Fax: (012) 841 3400
Email: dkruger@csir.co.za
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