Designing Out Crime (From Critical Criminal Justice Issues: Task Force Reports From the American Society of Criminology, P 85-93, 1996, American Society of Criminology, ed.)

• NCJ Number: 171278
• Author(s): R Clarke; Pat Brantingham; Paul Brantingham; J Eck; M Felson
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: American Soc of Criminology
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

After reviewing the essential tenets of environmental crime prevention, this paper recommends Federal policies for facilitating the implementation of crime prevention through environmental design.

Abstract

The essential tenets of environmental crime prevention are to increase the difficulty of committing crime, increase the perceived risks of committing a crime, reduce the rewards associated with criminal acts, and reduce the rationalizations that facilitate crime. Interest in environmental design to prevent crime has languished in the United States in recent years largely due to the belief that such efforts do not prevent crime overall but simply displace it to some other target, time, or place. Research has shown, however, that whether or not displacement occurs depends on the ease with which offenders can obtain the same criminal rewards without greatly increased effort or risks. Important preventive design initiatives that currently need Federal sponsorship include the development of effective personal alarms for repeat victims of domestic violence and the use of PIN numbers for VCRs and other electronic devices that are popular targets for burglary. A Crime Prevention Extension Service, linked to local universities, should be developed within the Department of Justice. Its mandate should be to deliver expert crime prevention advice to small businesses and local communities. A table shows 16 techniques of situational crime control with examples.