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The Missing Link in CPTED Theory

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Preventing Crime and Violence

Part of the book series: Advances in Prevention Science ((Adv. Prevention Science))

Abstract

Crime prevention through environmental design is among the most resilient theories of the modern era, primarily because it works so well in practice. It reduces the physical opportunity for crime through architecture and urban planning. In its earliest years, CPTED theory shifted immediately toward a target hardening orientation and away from its social ecology roots. That gave rise to, or accompanied, a host of other opportunity-based approaches that now represent a new movement in criminological theory. But in spite of this theoretical bifurcation, the original strains of social ecology and the neighborhood-building visions of the CPTED pioneers persisted. The latest expansion of CPTED theory emerged in 1997 in the form of 2nd Generation CPTED, which rediscovers social ecology and creates a more balanced approach to neighborhood crime prevention. Today it is implemented in a new urban planning and prevention method called SafeGrowth.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It may even be said that the work of influential criminologist Edwin Sutherland, particularly his differential association theory, has a University of Chicago origin. Sutherland worked at the University for 5 years alongside Clifford Shaw and other social ecologists (Sutherland 1947; Shaw and McKay 1942).

  2. 2.

    At the time there were already studies investigating the concept of physical territoriality, most notably Hall’s The Hidden Dimension (1966) and Ardry’s The Territorial Imperative (1966). However, none of that work survives today in any coherent form in latter-day CPTED theory to explain why territoriality happens in the first place and how we might encourage it when it does not.

  3. 3.

    Jacobs never associated with the CPTED movement, nor did she write on the topic. Her connection to CPTED was made retroactively by historians and by those early CPTED writers who were influenced by her work.

  4. 4.

    Jacobs was the first to popularize the concepts that became CPTED and Angel’s (1968) research was the first empirical work to explicitly link them to crime prevention. Jeffery (1971) was the first to coin the phrase CPTED and write from a criminological perspective. It was from Oscar Newman’s Defensible Space (1972) where the tactics of 1st Generation CPTED emerged. Likewise, Elizabeth Woods, a former student at the University of Chicago and Chicago’s director of housing, wrote about social housing, design and balanced neighborhoods (1960). Clearly there is no single author of ideas behind early CPTED; all the pioneers had influence and all made significant contributions.

  5. 5.

    This does not obviously apply to all training. A few updated programs do add material about social programs. However, most do not and those that do seldom employ coherent or systematic strategies as outlined in 2nd Generation CPTED theory. A review of the topics listed in the majority of CPTED courses illustrates to extent to which physical opportunity reduction, lighting, fencing, and access control dominate the curricula. See an example at http://www.cptedtraining.net/. Accessed February 23, 2014.

  6. 6.

    Even the preeminent University of Chicago scholar, Amos Hawley, in his elegant essay on human ecology, notes this trend when he laments that sociologists became obsessed with the spatial dimensions of city life to the point where human ecology is now thought to be primarily the study of spatial patterns (Hawley 1986: 1). It will become clear later in this chapter how 2nd Generation CPTED, while not as expansive as Hawley’s view, begins the reintegration of CPTED with social ecology.

  7. 7.

    It is interesting to note there were some significant successes identified in those early studies. See the evaluation on Portland by Kushmuk et al. 1981.

  8. 8.

    There are many histories written about the social prevention programs of the Chicago Area Project. Started in the 1930s by Clifford Shaw, an important social ecology theorist, the project is still underway today. http://www.chicagoareaproject.org/historical-look-chicago-area-project. Accessed February 25, 2014.

  9. 9.

    Although he did not study threshold crime effects directly, Sampson’s exhaustive text on Chicago’s neighborhoods cites research on urban transformation and neighborhood tipping points regarding racial homogeneity and poverty.

  10. 10.

    Conference presentations and various ICA publications are posted on the website of the International CPTED Association: http://www.cpted.net.

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    Gregory Saville

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  1. Gregory Saville
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  1. Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Brent Teasdale

  2. Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA

    Mindy S. Bradley

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Saville, G. (2017). The Missing Link in CPTED Theory. In: Teasdale, B., Bradley, M. (eds) Preventing Crime and Violence. Advances in Prevention Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44124-5_25

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