6.1. Implications
CPTED has become a popular urban planning approach to preventing crime and mitigating fear of crime by improving physical neighborhood environments. This strategy is widely used to improve deteriorated neighborhoods that suffer from crime. Residents of dilapidated neighborhoods are generally exposed to higher crime rates; hence, their fear of crime tends to be strong. Such environments jeopardize residents’ mental health and harm their physical health by discouraging physical activity. Thus, many neighborhood regeneration projects have incorporated CPTED measures to reduce crime rates, alleviate fear of crime, and eventually promote an active lifestyle by creating safe living environments. However, few studies have empirically examined the complex relationships among CPTED, fear of crime, and active living. Our study, therefore, investigated the effects of CPTED measures on walking frequency and fear of crime, analyzing behavioral data of residents living in participatory neighborhood regeneration project areas and matched neighborhoods. We used SEM, which could consistently estimate complex direct and indirect relationships between latent variables (fear of crime) and observable variables.
The SEM reveals that sufficient CCTV coverage, street lighting, and maintenance play a significant role in mitigating fear of crime. This result is consistent with previous findings [
3,
28]. However, other CPTED measures, such as fence removals, transparent fences, murals, paving patterns, community parks, and community centers, have insignificant effects. This outcome implies that while surveillance devices (CCTVs) and street lighting contribute to reducing the fear of crime, CPTED measures based on natural surveillance and improvements of the physical environment are ineffective in this regard. Since CPTED theories encourage natural surveillance, activity support, and territoriality, the results call for a reevaluation of the effectiveness of these CPTED approaches in rehabilitating deteriorated neighborhoods in Korea. As identified by previous studies [
20,
27], the level of maintenance is correlated with fear of crime; litter, graffiti, and vandalism (physical incivilities) tend to be correlated with higher levels of fear of crime. Finally, the model identifies the gender difference regarding fear of crime; women are more likely to have a higher level of fear of crime than men, which is consistent with previous findings [
17,
18,
20].
We have also examined the environmental and psychological factors that affect residents’ walking behavior. The results indicate the influence of fear of crime on walking frequency; residents who are afraid of crime tend to walk less often. While people are inclined to walk more frequently around well-occupied locations without vandalism, graffiti, or abandoned buildings, most CPTED measures are not significantly correlated with walking frequency levels. Moreover, street lighting is negatively associated with walking frequency. This result is unexpected because street lighting is supposed to make walking easier and safer in the evening. On the other hand, it might be related to the complex effects of street lighting; streetlights are often located around deserted places, and better lighting might also make signs of disorder more visible [
38]. However, the SEM did detect indirect and positive effects of CCTV, community parks (albeit weak), and maintenance on walking frequency through the alleviation of the fear of crime.
This study has implications for planning and policy issues regarding CPTED, mental health, and active living. In post-industrial cities, such as Seoul, the environmental degradation of old neighborhoods is a major challenge for urban planners and policymakers. Deteriorating neighborhoods are often accompanied by urban disorder, including economic decline, social segregation, high crime rates, and decreasing quality of life. To resolve these issues, renovation projects have included CPTED measures intended to improve physical environments and surveillance. Restoring physical elements, such as dilapidated walls and streets, using murals, and installing new pavements, are expected to create an impression of well-maintained neighborhoods and thus discourage crime and reduce fear of it. CPTED measures, such as fence removals and transparent fences, are used to improve natural surveillance. Local facilities, including community parks and centers, are also used to encourage social activities and, thus, minimize crime. However, these CPTED measures’ insignificant or marginal effects on the fear of crime and walking frequency, with the exception of CCTV and street lighting, suggest the inadequacy of these current rehabilitation approaches.
While CPTED measures have been widely used in Korea, limited research has empirically examined their effectiveness. As the results indicate that surveillance devices tend to be more effective in reducing fear of crime than urban planning and design approaches, our findings call for a more detailed examination of how CPTED measures influence human perceptions and behavior and how people respond to environmental attributes. Toward this end, a longitudinal investigation of actual crime records in CPTED areas and an evaluation of restoration projects based on residents’ responses are essential for improving CPTED approaches and creating safer and more active neighborhood environments.
6.2. Shortcomings and Future Research
Our study’s aim was to evaluate fear of crime in locations with installed CPTED measures. To do so, we recruited people who were passing through the chosen sites. Hence, participants were not randomly selected. We compared the socioeconomic status of participants to census data in order to identify potential bias in our sample, and we found that the sample was biased toward older participants. The respondents from CPTED neighborhoods also tended to be older than their counterparts from non-CPTED neighborhoods. Other unobserved biases could possibly exist, which would limit this study’s validity. Furthermore, our analysis did not consider car ownership, focusing instead on walking around the residents’ neighborhoods. However, the omission of car ownership might lead to potential biases. Additionally, our data did not distinguish utilitarian walking from recreational walking although the latter might interact with the neighborhood environments differently from the former. Therefore, a more systematic and comprehensive data collection process should improve the study’s validity.
Another shortcoming was that the indicators, which were designed to capture perceptual, emotional, and behavioral aspects of fear of crime, were not successfully extracted, with the exception of the emotional dimension. Hence, we could not investigate perceptual and behavioral aspects of the fear of crime. Despite these limitations, our study sheds light on the complex relationships among CPTED measures, fear of crime, and walking activity.
In future studies, more effective indicators would enable researchers to explore different aspects of fear of crime. Moreover, because our research relied on non-randomized samples from low-rise, renovated, and deteriorated neighborhoods, future research in different contexts (for example, medium- or high-density neighborhoods) would improve the validity and generalizability of our findings and provide insights into the effectiveness of CPTED approaches in various settings. Finally, because of our study’s focus on Korean samples, its generalizability is limited to low-rise neighborhoods in Asian cities similar to Seoul. Parallel studies in different contexts should enhance the external validity of the findings.