UQ eSpace

Abstract

This research involved the investigation of the relationship between Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and master planned communities (MPCs). The physical design of MPCs has the potential to influence residents' feelings of safety and security and also impacts on the ability of CPTED principles to be effective. This influence is created by manipulating the physical environment to increase the perception of safety of the surroundings. The interaction between people and their surroundings is an important issue particularly emphasised in the second generation of CPTED in which the social influences on criminal behaviour are seen as equally important as the physical design principles. Further, the development of CPTED to incorporate such social characteristics implicit in communities is an important step to achieving the ideal of community so strongly marketed by developers of MPCs. This research aims to answer the following questions: how, and to what extent, have CPTED principles been incorporated into the design of North Lakes; has crime prevention been a motivating factor behind their inclusion or are there other forces driving the development of the estate?; and what is the subsequent role of crime prevention principles in building community, and vice versa?