Crime prevention series

The theory

Published in:
Preventing graffiti and vandalism
Susan Geason and Paul Wilson
Canberra : Australian Institute of Criminology, 1990
ISBN 0 642 14936 4 ; ISSN 1031-5330
(Crime prevention series) ; pp. 4-6

Defensible space

In his breakthrough work on crime and vandalism in public housing, Oscar Newman (1972) propounded the theory of "defensible space". Briefly, Newman found that crime rates in high-rise buildings where hallways, lifts, lobbies, fire escapes, roofs etc. were isolated from public scrutiny were higher than in low-rise buildings. His solution was to re-design apartment buildings so public areas would be under surveillance by some residents at all times.

Territoriality, natural surveillance and image and milieu are the three major components of defensible space theory.

Territoriality and natural surveillance refer to a sense of ownership and control which leads people to mark out and defend their own turf. Defensible space architecture, by making clear which spaces are private, which are shared by residents and which are public, discourages intruders and encourages residents to monitor public and semi-public spaces and challenge those who do not belong.

Newman also believed defensible space design could counteract the negative effects of the poor image people in public housing often suffer. Were residents prouder of their dwellings, they might treat them better, he reasoned. This is complemented by his notion of "milieu" which insists that a housing estate should be designed to harmonise with its immediate neighbourhood.

Newman's approach to crime, violence and vandalism in public housing was situational: he stressed the role architecture and design could play. Other criminologists saw design measures as only one component of a crime reduction program which would also include the creation of groups dedicated to preventing crime among residents, better policing, and improved relationships between the police and the community (Murray 1983).

In summing up a number of studies on the subject of vandalism, Canter (1984) concluded that vandalism was a social and physical process - a view that contradicted Oscar Newman's perspective - in which physical solutions were presented as the most effective ways of dealing with the problem. In fact, the criminologists who contributed to this study (Levy-Leboyer 1984) decided that purely physical solutions were liable to backfire and produce unacceptable physical environments.

Instead of "target hardening" - for example using strong or shatterproof glass for windows - Canter suggested "target softening", that is, making potential targets for vandalism very easy to replace and replacing them cheaply and quickly. His theory was that, when frequently vandalised objects were replaced, the vandals' initial response was to attack again, but as the objects were repeatedly replaced, the vandals' motivation for attacking them declined - a war of attrition.

Canter suggested recruiting the public into the war against vandalism, an example being British Telecom's program in which people adopted a telephone, effectively making vandalism the whole community's rather than just Telecom's problem.

Manageable space

The role of management has been stressed by others such as Donald Perlgut (1981,1982). In his theory of "manageable space", Perlgut emphasised the need for management which assumes most residents can learn and even seek out responsibility and exercise considerable creativity in participating in their communities. Architecture, he argued, should respond to people, and the design welcome and reflect the presence of human beings.

Physical design and kinetic management

Marcus Felson (1987) concentrated on physical design and kinetic management to reduce crime. He spoke of manipulating the environment to divert flows of likely offenders away from likely targets, or to restrict them to where they can be monitored.

Clarke and Felson (1988) have categorised a number of situational crime prevention strategies thrown up by successful case studies. Some are relevant to graffiti and vandalism.

• Reduce convergence of targets and offenders.
• Constrain offenders. This could mean: strengthening social controls for example through smaller classes in schools to cut down vandalism; restricting access to facilities or means of committing crimes for example. by placing a ban on the sale of aerosol paint sprays to juveniles; restricting access to disinhibitors such as alcohol which might lead people to commit crimes for example by banning the sale of alcohol at football games.
• Protect targets. This can be done by: target hardening, for example using vandal-resistant materials in public places; restricting access to places where crimes could be committed for example by padlocks or security guards on train depots.
• Enhance guardianship. This could mean: increasing surveillance, real or apparent for example through Neighbourhood Watch, citizens' patrols, transport police; assigning responsibility for example by training employees to challenge potential offenders; and increasing the capacity to intervene for example] by giving radios to bus or train drivers.