Urban environment
A methodology of selection: good practices on crime prevention through environmental design in Latin America
Can environmental design make cities safer?: a tool for identifying good practice
Authors:
P. Higuera
Publisher:
Eldis Document Store, 2007
Many Latin American countries continue to experience a high incidence of crime and violence, especially in urban areas. While policy makers have tended to focus more on arrest and punishment than on prevention, planners and architects have long recognized the connection between spatial design and safety. This paper discusses what criteria should be used to select good practices in crime prevention through environmental design.
Specifically, the paper describes a methodology for selecting good practices of crime prevention through environmental design, which was developed in a forum held in Brazil as part of the Safer Cities Programme – an initiative that grew out of the World Social Forum on Democracy, Human rights, Wars and Drug-Trafficking, which took place in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in 2003. Ten criteria were established for the selection of good practices, based on international and regional studies on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design and fieldwork. These were:
- Type of crime
- Determining the crime hotspot
- Identifying the target population
- Level of analysis of the physical environment
- Addressing the immediate solutions
- Identifying the potential strategic action
- Role of local government Partnership (Stakeholders and Participants)
- Community participation
- Use of other preventive measures.
These factors form part of a “selection tool frame”, which can be used to rate the effectiveness of particular examples of crime prevention through environmental design.
