VOLUME 1 HUMAN SETTLEMENT PLANNING AND ... - CSIR

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GUIDELINES FOR HUMAN SETTLEMENT PLANNING AND DESIGNTHE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTALDESIGN IN PREVENTING CRIME INSOUTH AFRICAN CITIES AND TOWNSPreventing crime has become a key challenge togovernment in post-apartheid South Africa. However,a review conducted for the National Crime PreventionStrategy (NCPS) in 1997, of the extent to whichenvironmental design for crime prevention is beingimplemented, suggests that there is little experienceto draw from in South Africa. Design professionalsalso rarely use crime pattern analysis in the designprocess. Therefore, a careful regard of the extent towhich environmental design is being utilised toprevent crime is crucial if environmental designchanges are to address the real problems.In this regard, government’s core policy document, theNCPS, places environmental design firmly on theagenda. In addition, the White Paper on LocalGovernment expects local authorities to play a key rolein implementing two of the four focus areas of theNCPS, namely environmental design and promotingpublic values and education.Apart from government legislation, the public is alsopressurising local government to respond to the crimeissue. Communities participating in workshops todevelop Land Development Objectives (LDOs),required by the Development Facilitation Act, have inmany cases prioritised the need for greater safetyabove all other needs. Local and internationalbusiness interests have also highlighted the impact ofcrime on tourism and foreign investment. With this inmind, a focus on crime prevention throughenvironmental design is indeed warranted.Crime in South Africa affects different people andparts of the city in different ways. This has importantimplications for planning and the prioritisation ofdesign interventions. Crime patterns and trends inpoorer areas such as townships and informalsettlements differ from those in wealthier suburbs,which in turn differ from those in inner city areas.The poorer inhabitants of the city are generally mostvulnerable to violent crime, but they do experience asignificant proportion of property crime. Suburbanresidents are more likely to be the victims ofproperty crime, and they experience comparativelylow levels of violence. In inner city areas, violentcrimes targeting property predominate.Environmental design can make an impact on sometypes of crime in each of these settings, as well asalleviate the fear of crime.Given this present situation, the next section willshortly define the concept of crime preventionthrough environmental design. This will be followedby the fundamental principles of environmentaldesign to prevent crime, accompanied by some of theimportant recommendations to be considered whenapplying these principles to settlement planning.Finally, the application of these principles will behighlighted.THE CONCEPT OF CRIME PREVENTIONTHROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGNThe notion of adapting and exploiting theenvironment, particularly the built environment, toassist with crime prevention is not new. Take, forexample, the defensive walls that were built aroundmedieval towns to protect the inhabitants fromintruders. This was, in effect, using environmentaldesign as part of a strategy to prevent crime.During this century numerous studies have beenconducted and many documents written on therelationship between environmental design and crime.Over the past 30 to 35 years, a number of schools ofthought have emerged around the idea of crimeprevention through environmental design. Theinternational literature and the main components ofrecent thinking on the subject are outlined in thefollowing South African publications, namely, Safer byDesign (Kruger et al 1997), Environmental Design forSafer Communities in South Africa (Napier et al 1998)and The History of Crime Prevention throughEnvironmental Design: A Comparative Study (Meyerand Qhobela 1998).Today, it is generally accepted that certain types ofcrime can be limited if the environment is designedappropriately. Design initiatives form an integral partof crime prevention strategies in countries likeCanada, the United Kingdom, the United States ofAmerica and The Netherlands. A great deal of researchon the topic has been done internationally andnumerous publications are available. However, littleresearch has been done as yet in South Africa.Environmental design as currently practised is oftenindistinguishable from target-hardening (for example,building higher walls and securing property againstcrime). Target-hardening is, however, only onecomponent of environmental design to prevent crime.Crime prevention through environmental design canbe defined as the implementation of measures toreduce the causes of, and the opportunities for,criminal events, and to address the fear of crimethrough the application of sound design andmanagement principles to built environments.Understanding crime is critical to its prevention.Whether or not a crime occurs depends on theinteraction of several elements. These elementsinclude the physical and social environment in which acrime occurs, the presence of active or passive forms ofsurveillance, the perpetrator, and the target or victimEnvironmental design for safer communities Chapter 5.8.11
GUIDELINES FOR HUMAN SETTLEMENT PLANNING AND DESIGNof a crime. The form of the built environment caninfluence these elements and several design principlesare fundamental in designing to reduce crime.PRINCIPLES OF CRIME PREVENTIONTHROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGNA number of basic principles emerge as fundamentalin designing to reduce crime. While these principlesare universal in the design of safer environments, theyhave been adapted to suit the characteristics anddynamics of South African cities. Most of these citieswere shaped by apartheid planning principles, whichcontribute to the crime problems. With this in mind,crime prevention through environmental designbecomes an even greater challenge.The backdrop for these principles is, therefore, theSouth African city. This is the typical physical and socialsetting within which designers and decision makersare working, and fundamental restructuring is crucialif equitable and safer cities are to be achieved.Active surveillance refers to surveillance by police orother agents whose express function is to patrol an area.Surveillance is improved if there is good visibility.Visibility is the degree to which an environment ismade visible by elements such as lighting anduninterrupted lines of sight. Dark or twisting streets,alleys, entrances and doorways can act as havens forpotential offenders and increase residents’ andvisitors’ fear of crime. The way in which lighting isdesigned and positioned, and the way roads and pathsare laid out can obviate many of these problems andrender environments and users visible to anyone in theenvironment.The following are a number of the ways to ensuresurveillance.• Design and zone streets and squares to allow longhours of use and so act as organising elements forthe location of varieties of facilities.These basic principles are• surveillance and visibility;• territoriality and defensible space;• access and escape routes;• image and aesthetics; and• target hardening.These principles are applied throughrecommendations for crime prevention at three levels:city, neighbourhood and site. The following sectionwill highlight only a few of the recommendations forthe city and neighbourhood levels, since these aredirectly relevant to settlement-making. A morecomplete set of recommendations can be found in thepublication: Environmental Design for SaferCommunities in South Africa (Napier et al 1998).Surveillance and visibilityPassive surveillance is the casual observance of publicand private areas by users or residents in the course oftheir normal activities. It can also be referred to as thepresence of “protective eyes”. The extent of visualcontact people have with a space and whether theirpresence is visible determine whether they canintervene and whether users feel safe.Passive surveillance depends on a range of factorsincluding the placing of windows, doors and otheropenings, the distances between buildings, the sizes ofpublic spaces, vacancy rates and degrees and types ofuse. The zoning of city areas and the functionality ofbuildings are key elements in determining whetherprotective eyes are present day and night, or not.Multifunctional land uses, rather than monofunctionalzoning are required to ensure long hours of use.Figure 5.8.1.1 Increase opportunities for passivesurveillanceThese facilities can then ensure the presence ofprotective eyes, both in the day and at night.• Design neighbourhoods so that people areencouraged to intervene quickly and effectively tomodulate crime.This can be promoted in a number of ways - forexample, through the proximity of buildings to eachother; the number of people accommodated there;the orientation of the buildings and how this impactson surveillance; the design of shared entrances andaccess routes; the human scale of the area; and theprovision of inviting and well-defined outdoor spaceswhich are conducive to users meeting andcommunicating (see Hard Open Spaces (Sub-chapter5.3), specifically, functions of hard open space and usergroups).2Chapter 5.8.1Environmental design for safer communities
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G u i d e l i n e s f o rHUMAN SETT
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IndexVolume 1Volume 2Chapter 1Chapt
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Chapter 2A framework forsettlement-
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Chapter 4Planning method andpartici
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Movement networksChapter 5.15.1
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Chapter 5.25.2Public transport
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Chapter 5.5Public facilities5.5
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