Don’t Be a Victim—Change Your Space!

Much of crime fighting focuses on people—criminals, police officers, victims and even the general public. Unfortunately, people can be difficult to work with and hard to change. So what if we took people out of the equation and instead tried to prevent crime through something that is easy to change: the physical environments we live and work in everyday? 

That’s exactly the idea behind the approach known as Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED). The basic idea behind CPTED is to use the environment to change the behavior of criminals in order to limit crime. Let’s look at how we can use CPTED to prevent crime through some simple changes to our homes, cars and workplaces. 

Is Your House a Target for Burglars?

What makes your home attractive to a burglar? If a burglar is considering your neighborhood, you want to make sure your house isn’t at the top of the list of prime properties to burglarize. If the choice is between your house and one down the street, access will be the deciding factor.

When targeting potential houses, there are a number of visual factors that a burglar uses:

• Are doors and windows hidden? (Can I get in and out without being seen?)
• Is anybody home? (Clues: newspapers piled up on the driveway, various flyers stuck in the front door, an unshoveled driveway.)
• No sign of an alarm system. (Can I remain “anonymous”?)
• Valuables are visible from the street. (Are the goods worth the risk?)

Knowing Your Adversary

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report 2005, over 62 % of residential burglaries occured between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. These crimes are most often committed when residences are most likely to be unoccupied.  According to the U.S. Department of Justice burglaries of residential properties accounted for 70.3 % of all burglary offenses.

Burglars are opportunists, that  means they don’t choose victims randomly.  They look for easy opportunities — houses that can be approached without neighbors seeing or hearing anything, or a door or window left cracked open.  Some burglars cruise a neighborhood looking for a house that seems unoccupied. They may try to ring the doorbell.  If no one responds, they’ll examine the house more closely. They may test the doors and locks, take note of window locations, look for alarms, and so on.

Three Key Principles of CPTED

Let’s take a look at the three main principles of CPTED along with a few examples of each.

Natural Surveillance

Areas where people and their activities can be easily observed are covered by natural surveillance. Environments need to be created where there’s plenty of opportunity for people engaged in their normal, everyday behavior to observe the space around them. 

Examples:     

• Make sure the house and the grounds are visible from the street and by neighbors.
• Make sure all entranceways are illuminated at night.
• Verify shrubbery, trees and other landscaping are well-located and maintained.
• Verify entrances and windows are free of other obstructions.

 

Natural Access Control

Most burglars will try to find a way into an area where they won’t be easily seen.  Limiting access and increasing natural surveillance makes this much harder.  By selectively placing fencing, lighting and landscaping, natural access control occurs.

Examples:

• Verify all possible points of entry and exit are visible.
• Use a locking gate between front and back yards.
• Try to eliminate design features that provide access to roofs or upper levels.

 

Natural Territorial Reinforcement:

An environment designed to clearly distinguish private space does two things. First, it creates a sense of ownership.  Second, it creates an environment where “strangers” or “intruders” stand out. 

Examples:       

• Installing fencing, pavement, lighting and landscaping expresses ownership and further defines private space.
• Display security system signs at entry  points.

 

Secure Your Space—Other CPTED Strategies

In addition to following the three key principles of CPTED, you can secure the premise by asking yourself the following questions: 

• Is the door hardware (for example, locks, latches, handles, hinges,) durable and securely installed?
• Is the locking mechanism effective on sliding doors?
• Is the garage door kept locked? Are tools and ladders kept where they can’t be accessed by a burglar?
• Do the basement and ground-floor windows have adequate locks?
• Are second-story windows that might be reached (for example, from the garage roof, ladder or overhanging tree limb) locked?
• Are all interior doors leading to the exterior (for example, basement, garage) locked?

One Final Suggestion . . .

Don’t tweet your travel plans!  Make sure to do the following before leaving for vacation:

• Lock all deadbolts.
• Leave a few lights on or set a few on timers.
• Stop newspaper delivery.
• Place mail on hold at the post office.
• Notify neighbors of your travel plans.

How have you changed your space to prevent crime in your area? Spread the crime prevention! Share your ideas, experiences, successes, failures, or thoughts with others in the comment section.