NCJ Number
138287
Journal
Aslet Journal Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Dated: (July/August 1992) Pages: 14-17
Date Published
1992
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The site plan review process as initiated in Ann Arbor, Michigan, illustrates the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) model, an approach to prevent certain specified crimes and the fear accompanying such crimes within a specifically defined environment by manipulating variables that relate closely to the environment itself.
Abstract
A lack of a standard CPTED approach frustrates the integration process which is complicated by the fact that crime prevention officials, security practitioners, city planners, architects, and other agencies often hold conflicting goals for the final project outcome. Ineffective communication and a lack of understanding about competing needs emerge as the two primary barriers to agreement. To realize some interdisciplinary understanding on the part of the police and the crime problem on the part of city planners and architects, a two-pronged training effort has been initiated in Ann Arbor: a training seminar designed to educate the non-law-enforcement planners in the fundamentals of CPTED and training to instruct the crime prevention officers in the functions and operations of the city planning department and the particulars of the site plan review process. The site plan review process, invaluable in terms of cost and liability, presents the ideal opportunity to reduce crime through the application of CPTED principles. It has validity in nongovernmental sectors as well as in a municipality.