Search Results (22)

Chinese universities are expanding outward, with more campuses now located on the urban fringe. Their boundaries are often open, and the surrounding land uses are mixed. This study examines four spatial attributes, edge definition, night-time lighting, visibility, and environmental maintenance, and how they relate to students’ perceived safety and environmental satisfaction. We draw on crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) and the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework to develop a mediation model: spatial attributes are associated with satisfaction through perceived safety. Survey data were collected from 411 students across two suburban campuses and were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Visibility and environmental maintenance both strengthen perceived safety, whereas edge definition and night-time lighting do not exhibit significant effects. Perceived safety, in turn, strongly predicts environmental satisfaction and serves as a key design priority in rapidly urbanizing campus settings, and is further translated into reusable spatial design patterns for campus safety assessment and targeted environmental intervention, and may also inform broader discussions of urban wellbeing in suburban contexts. Full article

This article examines how the same heritage or revival site can produce both welcoming and hostile atmospheres depending on the cohort, yielding selectively permeable environments that enable some groups while constraining others. Climatic volatility further shapes these encounters, as extreme weather has been shown to increase negative valence by making movement and access more difficult, especially for marginalized populations. Drawing on built-form analyses and political history—supplemented with interview data on everyday navigation and affective experiences in cities—the paper examines three cases: Cairo’s Tahrir Square, revivalist university campuses and Buenos Aires women’s marches. To explain why these locales produce varying atmospheres for different groups, the article draws on affordance theory—an empirically grounded account of valenced action possibilities that exist independently of any one observer yet remain harder for vulnerable populations to negotiate. These challenges often intensify around heritage and revival aesthetics, which can alienate outsiders, and are amplified by Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) elements, such as elevation changes, ornamental walls and other territorial cues. The study contributes to urban political ecology, especially scholarship on how aestheticized urban forms serve as instruments through which powerbrokers materialize dominance and produce uneven access to public venues. Full article

This paper defines the term “graffiti” and outlines the origins of this concept. The terminological arrangement allowed for the subject of this research, i.e., illegal graffiti, to be situated in reality, i.e., an urban space. It was assumed that the existence of the tag was associated with a disturbance of spatial order and had an impact on safety in a space. This, in turn, is related to whether the principles of sustainable development in the social dimension are applied. This paper makes reference to theories of security in a space (the “broken windows” theory and the strategy of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, CPTED) and shows the problem of illegal graffiti against the background of these theories. A new research aspect of the occurrence of illegal graffiti (scribbles and tags) within urban space is the features that determine its emergence in a spatial dimension. The aim of the analyses in this paper is to obtain information on which geospatial features are generators of illegal graffiti. The research field was limited to the space of one city—Olsztyn—with the assumption that the proposed research methodology would be useful for the spaces of other cities. The research methodology consists of several steps: firstly, we determined a list of features in the surroundings of illegal graffiti using direct interviews, and secondly, we analyzed the frequency of occurrence of these features in the researched locations in space. The next step was to standardize the obtained results using the quotient transformation method with respect to a reference point, where the reference point is the sum of all observations. After that, we assigned ranks for standardized results. The last stage involved an analysis using the GRA type of grey systems to obtain a sequence of strengths of relationships. This sequence allowed us to determine which of the features adopted for analysis have the greatest impact on the creation of illegal graffiti in a space. As indicated by the strength of the relationship, in the analyses conducted, geospatial features such as poor sidewalk condition and neglected greenery have the greatest impact on the occurrence of illegal graffiti. Other features that influence the occurrence of illegal graffiti in a given space include a lack of visibility from neighboring windows and the proximity of a two-way street. It can be assumed that these features are generators of illegal graffiti in the studied area and space. The poor condition of the facade has the least impact on the possibility of illegal graffiti occurring in a given space. Full article

This paper investigates how security-by-design principles can be integrated into urban planning to achieve a balance between protective measures and the openness, accessibility, and aesthetic quality of public spaces. Addressing a current gap in urban design practice, we introduce a new evaluative framework—the SAFE-CITIES “Atlas 4 Safe Public Spaces”—that embeds European policy guidelines, CPTED concepts, and New European Bauhaus values into an integrated security-by-design assessing tool. Drawing on the Horizon Europe SAFE-CITIES project (Grant Agreement No. 101073945), the research combines theoretical insights from EU policy documents and design principles with a comparative analysis of two case studies (Barcelona and Copenhagen) to inform practical strategies for integrating safety considerations into the design process. This approach identifies key operational principles that illustrate how safety measures—if considered from the early-stage planning—can be integrated without compromising openness and livability of public, illustrating how early-stage planning can incorporate security measures while sustaining social interaction and community life. Overall, the findings show that safety can be built into public space design from the outset, reinforcing community engagement and resilience, and the proposed Atlas framework offers planners a concrete tool to align security objectives with on-the-ground urban design practice. Full article

While urban greening is an effective adaptation strategy for building resilient cities, socioeconomic factors and individual perceptions of urban parks play a significant role in enhancing their safety and inclusiveness. Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a widely recognized approach for enhancing safety in urban public spaces. However, existing research has largely overlooked the impact of socioeconomic factors and interpersonal needs on shaping perceptions of safety. Baitashan Park is Located in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, China. It is an iconic urban park with significant cultural and recreational value. Despite the park’s popularity, it faces challenges such as uneven accessibility, maintenance discrepancies, and perceived safety concerns, especially among users from the lower socioeconomic status (SES) group. This study examines how SES and interpersonal needs affect the relationship between CPTED principles and perceived safety. Our findings reveal that interpersonal needs significantly mediate the impact of CPTED on perceived safety, with SES playing a moderating role in both the direct and indirect effects. Specifically, the influence of CPTED on perceived safety through interpersonal needs is more pronounced for individuals with higher SES, while the direct effect of CPTED on perceived safety is also stronger for users with higher SES. These results suggest that the effectiveness of CPTED principles can be enhanced by considering the interplay between socioeconomic status and interpersonal dynamics. This study underscores the importance of adopting a holistic approach to urban park design, integrating environmental, social, and economic factors to promote safety, inclusivity, and well-being for all park users. Full article

To maximize its synergetic effect across the cycle from prevention to response to post-crime management, crime prevention requires a balanced combination of spatial urban design and advanced crime prevention technologies for crime prediction and real-time response. This study derived intelligent Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) services and suggested a decision model based on the fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to implement these services in municipal control centers. The analysis results are summarized as follows. First, this study established a fuzzy TOPSIS-based decision-making support model enabling local government control centers to effectively select intelligent CPTED service elements. Second, overall, operator-led Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) and platform control technologies were identified as significant components of intelligent CPTED service elements. Third, a comparison by city size revealed that large cities in the Seoul metropolitan area rated system services for control based on advanced crime prevention infrastructure (e.g., the crime monitoring systems and real-time control drones/robots) relatively higher. In contrast, small and medium-sized cities in other provinces rated services that were perceptible to residents and improved crime-prone environments (e.g., artificial intelligence (AI) video analysis for living safety) relatively higher. Full article

Safety and crime prevention are significant concerns in both urban and rural areas. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) guidelines provide an architectural strategy to deter criminal activities by implementing strategic design plans, particularly through effective lighting schemes in urban settings. These measures aim to reduce the fear of crime and enhance the overall quality of life. Enhanced street lighting plays a crucial role in environmental crime prevention by lowering both actual crime rates and the perceived risk of criminal activity in built environments. Current recommendations emphasize installing lighting in poorly lit areas for safety; however, assessing road surface luminance solely based on existing streetlights is insufficient. The research underscores that well-illuminated streets with uniform lighting and higher illuminance levels enhance pedestrian safety and comfort. In addition, this study proposes standardized illumination levels specifically for outdoor facial recognition to aid in identifying potential offenders. It outlines the critical vertical illuminance range and Color Rendering Index (CRI) values necessary for this purpose. Furthermore, metrics like the Brightness Index and Safety Index were developed to enhance night-time security and illustrate their correlation with crime rates. Ultimately, this research introduces quantitative lighting standards to enhance the effectiveness of CPTED guidelines, contributing to efforts to reduce crime incidence. Full article

Currently, we observe an increasing number of terrorist attacks and violent crime, resulting in a noticeable increase in nervousness and tension in society. Not only on the territory of Europe, but also throughout the world, terrorist attacks and violent crime are mainly concentrated near objects that are accessible to the public, characterized by a relatively low level of security and a high concentration of people, so-called soft targets. The tendency to control and influence human behaviors by reshaping the environment dates back to ancient times, with the crime prevention through environmental design strategy being a later product that arose as a result of the impact of urbanization and industrialization on the rise of crime in Chicago. The aim of the article is the contribution of new knowledge to society, which is presented through graphic designs of technical measures on the sustainability of the development of public spaces and communities, as well as the reduction of crime. The acquired knowledge is based on a holistic and integrated theory of crime prevention called the concept of CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design), which is dedicated to the identification of the conditions of the physical and social environment that allow the possibility of committing crimes and their subsequent modification intended to limit it. At the end of the article, a use case is presented on the object of the railway station, which is a public space and at the same time falls into the category of soft targets. Human choices shape the built environment, as well as tools that can be used to create sustainable urban and village development, which are also dependent on an acceptable crime rate. We are not testing environmental design as a way of thinking and a field of practices, but we are testing a particular method of environmental design (CPTED concept), which is focused on crime prevention, for a particular set of targets. Full article

Strategies and guidelines for best practice environmental design typically have a singular focus and intended outcome, for example, green infrastructure management for urban cooling in a hotter climate. However, when applied to specific situations such as aged care, matters such as accessibility, wayfinding, and safety are also critical. Combining various audit tools offer multiple benefits to meet a variety of needs for thermal comfort, health, and well-being, as well as cost-effectiveness. In the absence of such a tool, using a place-based analysis, we developed a novel audit tool for external settings of residential aged care facilities (ACFs) incorporating urban cooling, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), and universal design criteria. To determine how ACFs perform in the face of increased levels of urban heat required evaluation of additional urban cooling measures. The Audit Tool was developed and tested in collaboration with ACFs across sub-tropical and tropical areas of Australia, varying in climate, scale, and urban density. Quality of life for residents, visitors, and staff of ACFs can be supported by the provision of green infrastructure to improve the thermal comfort of outdoor settings and, if located appropriately, reduce the need for an increase in internal air-conditioning. The aim of this article is to propose a user-friendly Hybrid Environmental Design Audit Tool (HEDAT) to support facility managers, planners, and design consultants to inform the prioritization and targeting of interventions and monitoring of implementation and outcomes. Full article

Crime is a manifestation of incivility that society attempts to curb, yet faces enormous challenges, as crime is a by-product of urbanization and human advancement. As more agglomeration of the population in cities around the globe, humankind’s safety from being threatened by crime needed to be safeguard to sustain everyday living in cities. Humans’ co-existence with crime and fear of crime in cities vis-a-vis efforts preventing it from occurring has been widely carried out in developed countries. An increasing trend is showing in emerging and developing countries. Therefore, this article provides empirical evidence regarding a safe city program launched in Malaysia. This study aims to identify the factors contributing to the prevention of crime and fear of crime. This study employed a survey questionnaire to 400 pedestrians’ perceptions of Kuala Lumpur city’s central business district. The result showed that prevention methods through the actor of “capable guardians” (i.e., authorities) are effective; however, methods through the actor of “suitable victims” (i.e., communities) is ineffective. Further studies should explore perspective of the actor of “likely offenders” (i.e., criminals) to fill in the gap of safe city program’s effectiveness and sustainability. Full article

There is a lack of quantitative data regarding how offenders make decisions about committing a crime or how situational factors influence such decisions. Detailed crime data on decision-making among criminals are required to improve the accuracy of research. Demonstrating a new methodology for assessing the factors impacting criminal decision-making among street robbery offenders, this study identifies visual data that influence criminal decision-making, and verifies the significance of the measured data. To this end, this study first identified and organized the physical aspects affecting criminal decision-making based on the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) literature. Next, participants were informed of a street crime scenario and asked to replicate the behaviors of criminals in the virtual environment of Grand Theft Auto 5. Factors affecting criminals’ decision-making were then quantitatively assessed using eye-tracking technology. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to verify the significance of the measured data. Results show that windows placed adjacent to the street, balconies and verandas, and signs indicating territoriality have a significant effect on criminals’ decision-making. Confirming the influence of CPTED factors on the occurrence of street robbery, this study advances a new way of acquiring quantitative data through eye-tracker technology, a method hitherto unexplored by existing research on street robbery. Full article

The scope of the present paper is to promote social, cultural and environmental sustainability in cities by establishing a conceptual framework and the relationship amongst safety in urban public space (UPS), lighting and Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based surveillance. This framework uses available technologies and tools, as these can be found in urban equipment such as lighting posts, to enhance security and safety in UPS, ensuring protection against attempted criminal activity. Through detailed literary research, publications on security and safety concerning crime and lighting can be divided into two periods, the first one pre-1994, and the second one from 2004–2008. Since then, a significant reduction in the number of publications dealing with lighting and crime is observed, while at the same time, the urban nightscape has been reshaped with the immersion of light-emitting diode (LED) technologies. Especially in the last decade, where most municipalities in the EU28 (European Union of all the member states from the accession of Croatia in 2013 to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom in 2020) are refurbishing their road lighting with LED technology and the consideration of smart networks and surveillance is under development, the use of lighting to deter possible attempted felonies in UPS is not addressed. To capitalize on the potential of lighting as a deterrent, this paper proposes a framework that uses existing technology, namely, dimmable LED light sources, presence sensors, security cameras, as well as emerging techniques such as artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled image recognition algorithms and big data analytics and presents a possible system that could be developed as a stand-alone product to alert possible dangerous situations, deter criminal activity and promote the perception of safety thus linking lighting and ICT-based surveillance towards safety and security in UPS. Full article

The visual fidelity of a virtual environment lacks the exceedingly complex layers from the physical world, but the continuous improvements of image rendering technology and computation powers have led to greater demands for virtual simulations. Our study employs Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) as a risk control measure and utilizes two principles: Access Control and Natural Surveillance. We conducted an experiment with (n-sample: 100) graduate students. For the experiment, we utilized the Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) to quantitatively analyze the risk. Furthermore, we adopted the lme4 package for R to estimate the mixed effect of the 6,242,880 observations retrieved from Kaggle. Based on the two experiments, we were able to critically evaluate the contributions of CPTED through a multi-component analysis. Our study investigates how spatial syntax and territorial demarcation may translate in the cyberspace realm. We found that the corollaries of the mophology in the virtual environment effects the distribution of crime. The results of our study discusses how to determine the criminogenic designs and capacity in the cyberspace realm. Full article

Empirically, the physical spatial arrangement of places provides us with a clue about the likelihood for crime opportunities based on the principles of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Although we know that the quality of the urban built environment influences people’s behavior, its measurement as a variable is not an easy task. In this study, we present and develop a set of urban built environment indicators (UBEIs) based on two datasets: building footprints and road networks at the neighborhood level in the city of Praia, Cape Verde. We selected the four most relevant UBEIs to create a single urban built environment indicator (CUBEI), and then, explored their relationships with five types of crime (i.e., burglary, robbery, mugging, residential robbery, and crimes involving weapons) using correlation and regression analysis. Our results showed a consistent and statistically significant relationship between different types of crimes with both the UBEIs and CUBEI, suggesting that a poor urban built environment is associated with an increase of all types of crimes investigated in this study. Thus, to minimize crime incidents, urban planners should rehabilitate or design neighborhoods from the earlier stage, considering the principles of CPTED and broken window theory (BWT). Full article

México has subsidized and built millions of low-income homes and thousands of subdivisions in the period of 2000–2012. These occupied and expanded urban peripheries far away from work, learn, service, commerce, and recreational amenity centers. These communities had no chance to offer a high quality of life. They were rapidly abandoned and deteriorated physically and socially. Amid the still ongoing crime and violence, inhabitants experienced a loss of trust in their neighbors, a deep sense of insecurity, and consequently reduced public life and activity to a minimum. This article describes and reflects on a project implemented in two neighborhoods of two northern México cities, with the objective of mitigating crime and violence, while recovering public spaces in these communities. The project implemented a hybridized methodology, including Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), attention to Youth at Risk, and the prevention of Gender Based Violence. All these were integrated transversally with a community participation approach incorporated throughout the project actions. This article reflects on the successes and failures of this pilot project, as demonstrated by differentiated results between a neighborhood located in Chihuahua City and another in the municipality of Guadalupe, within Monterrey’s Metro Area. The lessons learned, include the relevance of local political timing and interests, the importance of accurate and manageable geographic definitions for the areas of implementation, the role of NGOs, the importance of local educational institutions—in particular schools of architecture and the need for community oriented strategic consultants, to appropriately advise local governments in the implementation of projects of this nature. The article demonstrates the effort to make it accessible, and to anticipate the issues and opportunities as many Mexican, and other Latin American countries and cities engage in the spatial and social recovery of public spaces, neighborhoods, communities, and cities after years of high crime and violence. Full article