Promoting Safer Communities through Physical Design, Social Inclusion and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design: A Developmental Study

Y. Haigh

The impact of crime on people’s lives takes many forms. Strategies and intervention programs aimed at reducing crime open draw on a mix of approaches that focus on opportunity/situational reduction; the social/developmental; and the structural/social. Opportunity reduction aims to reduce crime by reducing the opportunity to offend; developmental approaches aim to provide initiatives to support young people and parents in the formative years in a bid to reduce delinquent behaviour in later years (Bottoms 1990); structural approaches focus on the structural base of society in terms of the reduction of poverty, inequality and exclusion (Weatherburn 2001; Hope 1997; Hughes 1998). In Australia, crime prevention is underpinned by the view that to reduce crime requires a coordinated and coherent approach that relies on partnerships between all levels of government, the community and the business sector (Homel 2005). Described as a ‘whole of government approach’, or ‘organisational fusion’ (IPAA 2002), it relies on integrating policy with programs in order to have these parts work together (Homel 2004). Further, crime prevention strategies are delivered in different formats depending on the State or territory government. In Western Australia, the Western Australian Community Safety and Crime Prevention Strategy emphasises that to reduce and prevent crime requires action that is sustainable, cooperative, inclusive, targeted and evidence based, and focuses on results and sharing knowledge (Community Safety and Crime Prevention Strategy 2004). This strategy acknowledges that to prevent crime requires a variety of approaches that include developmental, social and opportunity reduction programs. The aim of this project therefore is to examine the role of an opportunity reduction program undertaken by the City of Gosnells. Specifically, the Safecity Urban Design Strategy is based on developing building designs and urban structure in order to reduce the opportunity for crimes to occur. The premise of this project is to examine the strategy’s current effectiveness in reducing crime and, as a consequence, engendering some form of personal and community safety within the local government area.

Promoting Safer Communities through Physical Design, Social Inclusion and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design: A Developmental Study

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