Exploring the Theoretical Links between Design and Crime

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This chapter explores the theoretical links between design and crime and the emergence of a design based approach as a practical intervention widely implemented by police forces and local authorities. Whilst the recognition that the environment can influence behaviour has been explored for decades, specific reference to the potential to reduce crime through the design and manipulation of the physical environment only began to transcend the fields of geography and architecture in the second half of the twentieth century. Specific methods of applying these principles in practice increased in popularity in the late 1990s through the emphasis placed upon multi-agency crime reduction and the demonstration that interventions to block criminal opportunities can act as effective crime reduction measures. This chapter explores the emergence of new opportunity theories such as rational choice theory, routine activity theory and crime pattern theory, and the impact which these theories had upon practical interventions to reduce crime. The recognition that crime is not inevitable, that criminal opportunities can be blocked and that the responsibility for this does not lie entirely with the police created an environment in which crime prevention approaches such as situational crime prevention (SCP) and crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) could flourish.