The Concept Of Crime Prevention

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Safety and security are the fundamental rights of a citizen of a country .It is the state's responsibility to provide safety & security to its citizens. This is because crime has many ill consequences like it creates a feeling of conviction; it hinders economic activities from going to its fullest capacity, etc. Today the concept of sustainable communities is widely used- a community which is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. Is there any place of crime in a sustainable community & can a community be sustainable without safety and security? Most of us will agree that such a community is not sustainable. There are several examples which have shown that how crime prevailing in a community have affected the business activity, social life, etc.

The concept of crime prevention, safety and security are deeply rooted in the concept of sustainable community because the causes of criminal activities can be many i.e. economical, social and environmental-which in turn are the three branches of sustainability. But the concepts of sustainability and crime prevention were seen as two separate topics in the past.

The governments all around the world spend huge amount of funds in crime prevention measures every year. On the other hand the cost of raising the convicts is also significant. If crime would have not happened then these funds could have been used in some other more productive activities.

There is a famous phrase which says that �PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE�. So it will be wise to prevent crime from happening rather than redressing it. One way of doing it is target hardening of the possible target. This involves environmental design. We put so much effort in designing our communities, but in the past very less have been done regarding crime prevention through design. So can we put some more effort taking consideration of the crime prevention techniques during planning and design stage. This approach can reduce the cost of law enforcement and redressal of the criminal act.

Over the years, since Jane Jacobs published her book �The Death and Life of Great American Cities� in 1961, there have been many theories and principles which have come up which govern the design strategies for crime prevention. The subject of crime prevention by design and planning is a very new topic for urban designers and planners. All around the world these strategies have been applied. The question is that what is the extent of success of these strategies, because these theories and strategies are new to the world of design and planning and these have never been applied as before as 1961.

Design and planning alone cannot prevent or reduce crime. If we only focus on design aspect and ignore the economic and social aspects then crime prevention strategies of design will be of little success because the criminals will concentrate on other places which will be safer to commit crime.

As a result, it will be very in interesting in enquiring the questions that �Is environmental design and planning can reduce the criminal activities? If yes then, how? What is the extent of the success of the of the design crime prevention strategies?�

1.2 RESEARCH QUESTION

�WHICH IS A SAFER PLACE?�

1.3 NEED IDENTIFICATION

It is a matter of fact that crime is committed in a given environment, whether be manmade or natural environment. it is possible that the environment(natural or manmade) may be having some effect on the occurrence of crime.

In recent times the focus of the crime prevention authorities, planning and design authorities, criminologists, etc have also to started to move from the offenders to the space in which crime in committed. This phenomenon has initiated the genesis of a completely new branch of crime prevention which is known as ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMINOLOGY.

1.4 OBJECTIVES

1. To analyse the evolution of various theories and principles which have governed the environmental design strategies for crime prevention?

2. To understand the role of environmental design in crime prevention.

3. To analyze the extent of success of environmental design in crime prevention.

1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY

The scope of this study will be to understand what is a good environmental design which has the potential to prevent crime and the fear of crime. The scope of this study is also focused on the evolution of the environmental design theories and principles. This study also focuses on examples of environmental design that have been implemented and their extent of success of preventing crime by looking into various case studies.

1.6 LIMITATIONS

1. This study is limited to examples from western countries. For the Indian conditions there is no or very less examples for crime prevention through environmental design.

2. At macro level (like the city level), there are studies and researches available regarding environmental design for crime prevention. But at the micro level (like the house level) very less studies and researches are available. Effort will be made to study at the micro level.

3. Very few architects and designers have researched into the topic regarding crime prevention through environmental design. There is good amount of literature available from environmental criminologists, but there is a void from architect's and designer's side.

1.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The method of this study can be broadly classified into the heads which follows the order viz.

1. Reference Work

2. Case Study (field work including interviews and discussions)

1. Reference Work

* It will include the study of various books, journals , papers , magazines relating to the concerned topic. The purpose of this is to have the basic theoretical and practical knowledge of the subject.

2. Primary Case Study (including interviews and discussions)

* This part includes the first hand study of the subject. This will include the identification of neighbourhoods in Delhi and analysing their crime occurrences. After that the attributes of the environment of the neighbourhoods will be analysed in terms of design so that a relationship between environmental design and crime rate can be ascertained. For getting the account of the crime occurrences of the neighbourhoods, help from the police department will be needed. Also the local people of the neighbourhood will be interviewed for getting their views about the scenario.