Crime Prevention and the British Planning System: New Responsibilities and Older Challenges

Abstract

One of the most challenging current issues in planning systems is the extent to which they are now being expected to contribute to effective crime prevention, given the importance that both politicians and the public worldwide attach to crime reduction. Recent British initiatives have opened up some of the debates surrounding this matter, and this paper examines key operational elements of these. In particular, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, has placed a new duty upon British local planning authorities to exercise their functions with due regard both to the effect on, and the need to do all they can to prevent, crime and disorder. The government has subsequently reinforced this initiative by indicating in the Urban Policy White Paper (2000) its intention that crime prevention should become a key objective in planning. This article therefore takes as given the intention that the planning system in Britain should engage more effectively with these matters than it has done to date, noting in passing that there is extensive academic debate particularly around the concept of fear of crime, and begins to address some of the implications for the British planning system of actually doing this.