AC3.2 Flashcards
What is a defensible space?
Are areas where there are clear boundaries so it is obvious who has the right to be there, these are due to 4 key features?
What are 4 features in defensible spaces?
- Territoriality - environment encourages a sense of ownership among residents, certain layouts also tell outsiders that particular areas are for private use of residents.
- Natural Surveillance - building features such as easily viewed entrance lobbies and street level windows allow residents to identify and observe strangers.
- Safe Image - building designs should give the impression of a safe neighbourhood where residents look after each other. A negative image means the area will be stigmatised and targeted by offenders.
- Safe Location - neighbourhoods located in the middle of a wider crime free area are insulated from the outside world by a ‘boat of safety’.
What is a indefensible space?
Crime is more likely to occur in what Oscar Newman calls a ‘confused area of public space’ such as anonymous walkways and stairwells.
They belong to no-one, not cared for and not observed by no-one.
What did Oscar Newman find in his study of high rise blocks in New York?
He found that 55% of all crimes committed occurred in public places such as hallways, lifts, stairwells and lobbies.
What is crime prevention through environmental design?
C.R. Jeffery argued that the built environment can either create or deny opportunities to criminals.
What are the 5 key principles of CPTED?
- Physical security - measures which provide a physical barrier/safe location
- Surveillance - design ensuring that residents are able to observe the areas surrounding their home.
- Movement control - restriction of access and thorough movement
- Management and Maintenance - processes are in place to ensure that a development is free from signs of disorder.
- Defensible space - ownership of space in a neighbourhood should be clearly defined.
What research did Alice Coleman do on CPTED?
She analysed 4099 blocks of flats in 2 London boroughs and found that poor design of flats produced high rates of crime and anti-social behaviour.
Designs encouraged - anonymity/low visibility, lack of surveillance and easy escape.
What did Alice Coleman then recommend after her research?
- No more blocks of flats should be built
- Each existing flat should have gardens so residents would look after them
- overhead walkways removed as they obstruct surveillance.
Successfulness - removal of overhead walkways in W London led to a 50% reduction in crime. 30% reduction in burglary rates in ‘Secured by Design’ scheme houses.
What is a example of CPTED?
Gated lanes/alley gates.
They are lockable gates installed to prevent access by offenders to alleyways e.g. those that run along terraced houses.
Mainly used to prevent burglary and can prevent littering and anti social behaviour by preventing access to alleys by non residents
What are benefits of gated lanes?
- provide a physical barrier, increasing effort required to commit a crime.
- residents take responsibility for closing the gates increase guardship and surveillance.
- gates increases residents sense of territoriality.
- offenders can no longer use the excuse that they didn’t realise access was prohibited.
- alley gates may reduce the rewards of crime by limiting the items which are possible to remove during offences
What are limitations of gated lanes?
- open alleys may suffer from broken windows problems of disorderly, uncared for space that invites crime
- cost may be a issue for residents, avg cost was £728 per gate and avg benefit was over twice the cost
- doesn’t work against criminals who live in gated lanes
- gated lanes can restricted access for emergency services and refuse collectors which can be a problem.
What did Foucault argue?
That in modern society we are increasingly controlled through self-surveillance.
He illustrates this through a description of a prison design knows as the Panopticon
What is the Panopticon design?
Prisoner cells are visible to the guards from a central tower.
However the prisoners do not know they are being watched at any given movement. Therefore, not knowing if they are being watched the prisoners must constantly behave as if they are, just in case. Surveillance turns into self surveillance.
What does Foucault’s surveillance theory argue?
That in today’s society self surveillance has become an important way of achieving social control, we know that we might be being watched and we monitor and control our behaviour ourselves.
what is unit 4
FUCKING SHIT MATE
What is Pentonville prison London?
Design was more about prisoner isolation than prisoner surveillance. It could accommodate 520 prisoners under the separate system each having their own cell. Cells were built to prevent the transmission of sound and ensure separation.
What theories link to CPTED?
- Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) - It involves ‘target hardening’ by changing the physical environment to make it harder to commit crime.
- Felson’s routine activity theory - emphasises the importance of ‘capable guardian’ protecting potential crime targets in CPTED mutual surveillance by neighbours acts as a guardian.
- Rational choice theory - CPTED see offenders acting rationally e.g. if intruders fear they will be challenged by residents, they will be more likely to stay away from the area
What are some criticism of CPTED?
- CPTED focuses on offenders from outside who come into the area to offend, but insiders commit crime too
- CPTED cannot prevent offences that involve physical intrusion into a neighbourhood e.g. cyber crime
- Cul-de-sacs might be defensible spaces, but they might not actually be defended e.g. if residents are out at work there is no surveillance.
