Abstract
Violence and crime in countries such as South Africa are shaped by deep socio-economic inequalities; however, the spatial designs of urban areas and housing also play a role, but often in differing ways. There is little qualitatively derived research published on the design realities of poor informal housing where the hyper-permeability of housing structures directly shapes residents’ experiences of crime, often in gendered ways. This paper speaks to the wider literature on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) and applauds its recognition of the role of wider social factors in shaping crime and prevention, arguing that socio-political factors are critical too in the South African case. However, this paper calls for a fuller analysis of the particular material and design realities of informal housing, realities that are ever-present across the global South, which in practice can undermine efforts towards target hardening.
Highlights
Emanating largely from debates in the global North over the role of physical design in reducing crime, the body of literature labelled Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) has evolved following criticism of its over-focus on physical and environmental factors shaping crime and prevention
Despite authors employing the term ‘house’ or ‘housing’ as a key site of focus, the nitty-gritty material properties of houses, including target-hardening measures, are seldom assessed, instead the interface between houses and public space is more often the focus. This emphasis overlooks the significance of the housing realities of millions across the world who live in informal or slum conditions where housing standards vary enormously and where the particular material properties of housing do fundamentally shape experiences and prevention of crime. Conceptualizing this material reality as hyper-permeability, this paper argues that the permeability of much informal housing facilitates criminal access
This paper aims to contribute to the CPTED literature from the perspective of an urban geography of the global South employing both a qualitative and visual analysis
Summary
Emanating largely from debates in the global North over the role of physical design in reducing crime, the body of literature labelled Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) has evolved following criticism of its over-focus on physical and environmental factors shaping crime and prevention. The urban design elements of housing are gendered in complex ways but so too are the norms and practices shaping use, protection and design of public space In contexts such as the United Kingdom where safety in public space is relatively high for women (despite women’s fears of such spaces relating to how they are socially constructed, as well as real experiences of crime), it is accepted that the home is a far higher site of vulnerability for women. This pervasive nature of crime, crossing private– public boundaries, informs subsequent discussions in this paper
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