Environmental Design Strategies

It is possible to use Environmental Design strategies to reduce the incidence and fear of crime through three basic strategies:-

1. Natural Access Control
2. Natural Surveillance
3. Territorial Reinforcement

• Access control and surveillance are integral components of most crime prevention and/or security strategies. They are often applied together to reduce crime in a specific location, however, the operational thrust of each is distinctly different.

• Access control is a design concept directed primarily at decreasing the opportunity for crime and to create a perception of risk in the minds of potential offenders. Two readily identifiable access control strategies are locks and guards. These strategies define public and private space, i.e., where certain people may or may not enter.

• Make use of signs, colour landscaping, or natural boundaries. Surveillance is a design concept directed primarily at keeping potential offenders under observation and thereby increasing the perception of the risk of being caught. Surveillance strategies may include police patrols, guards, or closed circuit television. The environmental approach of natural surveillance seeks to maximise the opportunities for people in and around a given location to create the perception (if not the reality) that someone is watching.

• Natural access control and natural surveillance contribute to the third environmental strategy of territorial reinforcement. Adding personal touches, elements which clearly identify the environment as being 'owned' and 'cared for' by regular maintenance, removing rubbish, quickly removing graffiti, etc. should be included as part of this strategy. All of this has the effect of promoting an even greater perception of risk in offenders. Effective physical security is a Crime Prevention Strategy.