Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, Opportunity Theory, and Rational Choice Models (From Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 5, P 323-350, 1993, Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, eds. - See NCJ- 159998)

• NCJ Number: 160013
• Author(s): C R Jeffery; D L Zahm
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter discusses theoretical foundations for crime prevention programs and relates crime prevention to criminological theory in general, and to political policy specifically as it correlates with crime control.

Abstract

The authors focus on the conflict between the classical legal view of human nature based on free will, moral responsibility, and rational choice, and the positive scientific view of human nature based on determinism. The classical view is reflected in social control theory, routine activities, opportunity theory, and rational choice models of human nature and crime prevention. Neither model emphasizes the prevention of crime before it occurs. However, in recent years, some criminologists have begun to examine the impact of physical environment on crime, and the distribution of crime sites. The Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) approach integrates biological and psychological theories of human behavior. The approach contained in CPTED is crime prevention scientifically based in the modern brain sciences, urban planning, urban geography, and criminology. 1 table and 88 references