Crime Prevention through Environmental Design Principle (Research Paper Sample)

Research on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design Principle and Strategies in Major Cities in Developing Countries to Reduce the Crime and Fear of Crime
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Research on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design Principle and Strategies in Major Cities in Developing Countries to Reduce the Crime and Fear of Crime
Introduction
The physical environment plays a critical role in determining the likelihood of crime occurring in any particular location. For instance, physical structures such as forests, mountains, rocks, and rivers may offer hiding zones for criminals. Other physical structures such as fences, CCTV cameras, and lighting systems play a significant role in deterring crime. Therefore, altering the physical environment in a particular design may either increase the risk of crime occurrence or reduce the risk of crime occurring in a specific area. Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a well-recognized, and one of the commonly practiced approaches to crime prevention.
Lee et al. (2016) define CPTED as a multi-disciplinary approach to crime prevention mechanism that aims to deter criminal behaviors through changing the environmental design. Due to the nature of major cities in developing nations, CPTED strategies may help reduce the crime and fear of crime in these countries by designing their environment to influence the offenders’ decisions that precede criminal acts.
Identification of the Main Issues/ Problems
Crime is one of the significant social problems in major cities of developing countries. It affects thousands of innocent lives every year. Major cities in developing nations experience numerous severe crimes against people and their property, which often creates increased fear among people in these cities and their surroundings. Common crimes in these cities include theft, robbery, break-in, murder, and rape cases (Elis & Liu, 2018). These crimes cause security concerns among the communities in major cities in the developing nations and create fear that often restricts people's freedom of movement and subsequently prevents the residents from full participation in community development (Elis & Liu, 2018). Research shows that the most vulnerable groups to this crime are aged individuals, women, and teenagers (Lee et al., 2016). It is, therefore, vital for the security personnel in the cities to devise a permanent solution to these crimes to save the lives of these vulnerable groups.
Security officers need to employ multiple strategies to successfully mitigate complex crime issues and their fears. To achieve a successful crime prevention strategy, a multi-disciplinary approach of responses involving community action, law enforcement, and strategies in environmental design should be applied. Scholars such as Knight and Gunatilaka (2017) acknowledge that planners, developers, and architects may play a critical role in enhancing the safety of the communities living in the major cities in developing countries. This statement is true because these experts play an integral part in influencing the design of the cities' environment.
Although the general public perception is that the police and the judicial systems have the moral responsibility to deter the occurrence of criminal activities by arresting and punishing the offenders, arresting and punishing criminals may not work efficiently and effectively alone. It is crucial that city planners design an environment that can deter the occurrence of these crimes. Besides, there is the need to educate the public on the importance of designing an environment that offers maximum protection against crime.
According to Simon (2017), the need for public education about CPTED arises due to the increased public perception that the government has full responsibility to protect every individual. As a result, citizens often forget that they bear the most responsibility for their safety. Additionally, the lack of self-protection is contributed by the fact that the government and the insurance companies are often involved in bearing the cost of theft and vandalism.
The principle of CPTED asserts that homeowners, developers, planners, the community, and architects play an integral role in community protection against crime (Lee et al., 2016). They do so by integrating the principles and concepts of CPTED into designing and managing their physical environment. With that said, CPTED may be seen as one of the critical measures that yield an effective crime control and prevention framework when adequately designed and implemented. In this regard, this paper seeks to raise awareness of developers, homeowners, planners, architects, and the community on the concepts and principles of CPTED and how they may be applied in cities of developing nations to curb the prevalence occurrence and the fear of crime.
Analysis of the Issues
The two primary issues that arise in this discussion are the fear of crime and the effect of crime concerning people's health in major cities in developing countries.
The Fear of Crime
The fear of crime is one of the major issues affecting people living in major cities in developing nations. This is