Residential crimes and neighbourhood built environment: Assessing the effectiveness of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to assess the relationship between residential crime and the built environment that reflects the principles of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) at the neighbourhood level. Using crime data for Seattle, this study investigated the effectiveness of CPTED principles associated with two different space design approaches (i.e., permeable space and defensible space) with respect to reducing residential crime. For the analysis, 1407 cases of residential crime (i.e., burglaries and robberies) were extracted from the Seattle crime incidents report. To identify the spatially unbiased distribution of residential crime, an area-standardized crime measure (i.e., crime density) was used in the analysis. The regression results showed that the proportion of the residential area, the average number of building storeys, bus-stop density, street density, and intersection density was significantly related to residential crime when the model was controlled for population density, neighbourhood median household income, and the distance of the neighbourhood from the closest police station. The findings indicated that land use diversity along with improved street connectivity has an adverse effect on prevention of residential crime. Increases in bus-stop density and street density in neighbourhoods were negatively related to residential crime. The study calls for the refinement of CPTED concepts to increase the discriminative controllability of potential crime attractors/generators and preventers in the neighbourhood.