How Environmental Design Can Be Used to Prevent and Reduce Crimes in Major Cities - Research Proposal Example

Name Tutor’s Name Course Date Criminal Design Aims and Objectives The aim of this research will be to demonstrate how environmental design can be used to prevent and reduce crimes in major cities. Crime prevention and control through environmental design is based on the principle that effective and appropriate use of the available resources in cities can improve the safety and quality of life among the residents by reducing incidences of criminal and terrorist attacks. This implies that a city becomes less vulnerable to criminal activities and terror attacks if it is properly designed and well laid out. This research will demonstrate the aspect of crime prevention through environmental design by studying the way crimes are controlled in the cities of Abu Dhabi and Britain. Research Methodology The data to be used in this research will be collected through a literature review and a survey. The literature review will be conducted using existing literatures, which will mainly include books and journal articles. On the other hand, the survey will be done through issuance of questionnaires, designed with both closed- and open-ended questions. The questionnaires will be issued on a face-to-face basis. Literature Review Principles of Criminal Design There are four principles on which the concept of crime prevention through design is based. The four principles include: natural access control, natural surveillance, maintenance, and territorial reinforcement. These principles are mainly applied in the design and construction of new facilities, including buildings in the city. The principles can also be applied on the existing facilities and businesses (Deutsch 1). Natural Access Control Criminals have a feeling that they are in total control of the places where they succeed in carrying out illegal offences. It is this kind of feeling that the principle of natural access control seeks to thwart. This principle requires that the entrances to buildings and other facilities are clearly marked so that visitors can be directed to a defined area. By channelling all visitors to a particular area, it becomes easier to identify those individuals who may have ill motives or an intention to commit crime in the area (Deutsch 1). Natural access control can be created by placing mazes on the entrances to public facilities. The aim of using these mazes is to reduce or completely cut off direct links that lead to a potential target, such as a cashier of a particular financial institution in the building (Cozens, Saville, and Hillier 329). Natural Surveillance This principle is based on the idea that criminals do not like being recognised or seen when executing their plans. For that reason, this principle requires that a business area be put under natural surveillance to deter criminals from coming out to commit offences. Natural surveillance can be achieved by keeping the busy streets and other areas in a city well lit. The most appropriate places that should be kept well lit are building entrances to give a clear line of sight both from outside and inside (Welsh and Farrington 290). A natural surveillance system can also be created through the use of closed circuit television (CCTV) to bring the view of every place, especially the places without the sight lines. The CCTV cameras and other monitors should be situated on public places to show visitors that they are under watch. It is believed that criminals fear being captured on a security monitors (Deutsch 1). Territorial Reinforcement This principle requires that a clear distinction be created between public and private buildings and other facilities. This is to ensure that legitimate occupants of the city develop a strong sense of property ownership; this helps as it is easier to notice non-occupants. The principle is also intended to bar intruders from getting assimilated into the city as they do not own any property in it (Marzbali, Abdullah, Razak, and Javad 164). Maintenance and Target Hardening Maintenance and target hardening mean keeping the city in a clean and decent state. It is presumed that a well-maintained city creates the notion that the occupants are conscious and careful about everything that happens around them, in the minds of intruders. This principle is based on the theory of broken windows that states that one broken window can easily encourage the breaking of another one. This implies that a vandalised city is more prone to criminal activities. It is advisable that buildings and other facilities in the city be well-maintained to discourage vandalism and other forms of criminal acts (Cozens, Saville, and Hillier 332). Criminal Design in the Cities of Britain and Abu Dhabi Criminal Design in Britain Cities The high economic growth rate witnessed in British city centres seems to pose serious safety-related challenges to the urban designers and the police. The high fiscal growth comes with increased creation and use of cultural, educational, and entertainment facilities, resulting in 24/7 busy and vibrant city centres. The increased usage of these facilities creates management and safety challenges to the concerned authorities. The fact that these cities operate both day and night causes more social issues and criminal cases than ever before. As a result, the British city designers and managers have now embarked on coming up with proper and effective designs to prevent and reduce crimes in these centres (Wootton and Marselle 187). British metropolis managers now rely on environmental design as one of the most effective ways of discouraging and reducing crime in cities. The city managers, designers and the police believe that crime issues can be properly addressed through the alteration of the environment in which the criminal actions are committed. In Britain, the design against crime is promoted not only by the designers and the police, but also by manufacturers and project developers in the cities. The crime prevention program in Britain relies on the contribution from the fields of interior, product and graphic designs, and architecture, among other disciplines (Wootton and Marselle 188). There are a number of environmental strategies used in Britain to reduce the rate of crime in the city centres. The first commonly applied strategy is restriction on pedestrian and automobile movements within the cities. The movement of pedestrians and automobile instruments is regulated by the way the buildings in British cities are built and situated. Most of the buildings do not have elevated walkways and meandering connections that encourage and facilitate robberies of city occupants. In addition to the removal of the walkways, several entry phones are also in most entrances to reduce burglaries and robberies. It is proven that the strategies used to restrict movement are effective and they assist in discouraging crime in British cities (Cozens, Saville, and Hillier 336). The second environmental orientation strategy that is commonly used in British city centres to discourage crime is target hardening. The target hardening strategy involves the use of locks and other kinds of security-improving devices to prevent criminals from breaking into buildings and other facilities. Most buildings and business facilities in British cities have deadlocks and steel doors installed on them to make it difficult for criminals to break into the buildings and carry out their plans (Davey, Wootton, Cooper, and Press 39). Target hardening in the British cities also involves the use of guards. The guards are posted mostly in banks and other financial institutions to make it difficult for criminals to execute their plans. It is believed that criminals prefer to break into buildings that do not have any form of security reinforcement. Studies show that financial institutions that are guarded record fewer robbery cases as compared to those without security. In some cases, the guards work together with police officers to provide tighter security to these financial institutions (Cozens, Saville, and Hillier 341). Apart from target hardening, close-circuit televisions (CCTVs) are also heavily used in British city centres to discourage crime. The CCTVs are installed in buildings such as banks and supermarkets, and facilities that are mostly targeted by criminals. CCTV technology is a criminal design that works on the notion that criminals fear to be identified. The CCTVs capture and record every event that goes on in and around the buildings and in the other places where they are installed. The fact the CCTVs capture the faces of visitors makes it possible for the police to identify every person who enter the building; this helps to scare away any criminals who may plan to attack these places (Wootton and Marselle 190). Criminal Design in Abu Dhabi General crime rate in Abu Dhabi cities is placed at medium level and not considered as alarming as is the case in most of the similar cities in other Middle East countries. However, the rate of crime in the cities of Abu Dhabi is likely to increase as populations in these cities continue to grow rapidly. The current low crime rate recorded in these cities is attributed to the appropriate environmental design applied in their construction. Buildings and other property in Abu Dhabi cities are designed in such a way that they help to discourage crime in these cities (Ekblom, Armitage, Monchuk, and Castell 92). The cities of Abu Dhabi are designed in such a way that they contribute to fight against crime. Firstly, every space in the city is assigned to an individual or a group to ensure that no space is left idle. Idle spaces or lands become centres of crime where criminals or terrorists meet to arrange their activities. It is believed that if every space is apportioned to an individual for a serious and productive use, criminals will not find idle lands where they meet to plan how to execute their attacks. Proper land use and apportionment also helps in improving how city occupants relate. To a great extent, this strategy ensures that every building and other facilities are put under the watchful eye of the city’s occupants and as a result, no criminal plans can go unnoticed (Ekblom, Armitage, Monchuk, and Castell 93). The second strategy that is applied in Abu Dhabi to design against crime in the cities is penetrability. Penetrability refers to the way crucial and busy buildings and other facilities are left accessible to the city’s occupants and visitors. Automobile and pedestrian circulation within the cities is designed in such a way that vehicles and people enter and leave the cities in very limited routes. The exits and entrances are also situated in clear positions that make it easier to monitor movements into and outside the cities. The cities of Abu Dhabi are also kept free of landscaping features, such as shrubs and bushes, which normally create hiding places for muggers and robbers (Davey, Wootton, Cooper, and Press 46). The last strategy that is commonly used in discouraging crime in the cities of Abu Dhabi is surveillance. Surveillance in these cities includes a number of programs that also incorporate the city’s occupants. The first strategy in surveillance involves the use of CCTVs, but mostly in areas that are considered to be the most prone to terrorist and criminal activities. Secondly, there is the use of vandal-proof materials, such as steel doors with deadlocks, on shared entrances and buildings that are mostly targeted by criminals. Thirdly, the buildings in the cities are strategically situated to ensure that each building is visible to many other facilities. This helps to ensure that activities that go on in any of buildings are monitored in others so that in case of a criminal attack people from the adjacent or opposite ones can be called to assist (Ekblom, Armitage, Monchuk, and Castell 97). Study Design Individuals who will participate in this research will be people who meet the following three criteria: aged 18 years and above; willing to participate in the interview voluntarily; and should have been living in a city in Britain or Abu Dhabi for a period not less than 5 years. Each participant will be interviewed for not more than 30 minutes. This is to ensure that the interview is completed before the participants become impatient, given that most of them are people with various commitments. Study Population The participants of this research are individuals that are committed and as a result, they need to be handled cautiously. The target population from where the participants will be drawn is residents of the cities in Abu Dhabi and Britain. The participants will include both men and women to ensure proper gender inclusion. The research will include 300 (75% of the total participants) male and 100 (25% of the total participants) participants. Sampling Given the large size of the required sample, the research will apply very effective methods to sample the individuals who will participate in the research. The methods include snowball sample and reliance on available participants. The first sampling method, snowball, is recommended for use in a research study in which it is difficult to locate the participants. In this research, it may be difficult to locate the participants since they are not documented in any reliable source. Using snowball sample, the researchers will only need to locate a few individuals and those individuals to issue information that will lead the researchers to find other participants. The second sampling method, reliance on the available participants, will require the researchers to recruit the participants from their places of work within the cities. Intervention and Assessment The main materials that will be used in this research are questionnaires, designed with both closed and open-ended questions. The questionnaires will include both quantitative and qualitative questions. The quantitative questions will be designed with fixed orderings and will be placed at the end of the questionnaires. The quantitative questions, on the other hand, will be applied in the collection of information regarding demographic details of the participants and other measurable information. Unlike the quantitative questions, the qualitative questions will be open ended and will not have any fixed order. Some of the qualitative questions that will appear in the questionnaires include, why the participants live in their respective cities; if the participants believe that environmental design prevent crimes; and if the participants may want city architects to design cities in such a way that prevent crimes. Some of the quantitative questions that will be asked include, the age of the participants; how long the participants have lived in their respective cities; and if they are planning to migrate from these cities. Bias Consideration This research will be designed in such a way that all biases will be considered. Firstly, gender bias will be addressed by ensuring that at least 30% of the participants are women, while the remaining 70% are men. The bias that may come as a result of using a small sample will be addressed by using a large sample size of about 400 participants. Lastly, regional imbalance will be addressed by ensuring that every major city in Britain and Abu Dhabi is represented in the sample. Data Collection and Analysis The data to be used in this research study will be collected through interviews and questionnaires designed with quantitative and qualitative questions. The researchers, through the use of the in-depth interviews, will collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The interviews will be conducted on a face-to-face basis to ensure that the information obtained from the participants is valid and reliable. The interview method is the suitable for this research as it will enable the researchers to obtain detailed information from the participants, who in this case, are considered extremely busy and require researchers to be cautious when handling them. The quantitative data that will be collected through the survey will be used by the researchers to create a profile for the city residents who will take part in the research as participants. The qualitative data, on the other hand, will be used to provide detailed information regarding the effects of marijuana on the users’ well-being and mental health. The data collected in this research will be analyzed using Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to obtain the required important aspects, such as mean, medium, and distribution. Ethical Consideration The main ethical issues that are likely to arise when the research will be conducted include obtaining the informed consent of the participants, respecting their privacy and ensuring their safety. However, there are strategies that will be put in place to ensure that these issues do not affect the research. The first ethical issue, informed consent, will be addressed by disclosing the entire content of the study to the participants to enable them make a decision on whether or not to take part in the interview voluntarily. The second issue, privacy and safety of the participants, will be addressed by conducting the interview with a lot of secrecy. The issue will also be addressed by avoiding disclosure of the participants’ real identities in the results and analysis without the participants’ consent. Works Cited Cozens, Paul, Greg Saville, and David Hillier. “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED): A Review and Modern Bibliography.” Property Management 23.5 (2005): 328-356. Print. Davey, Caroline, Andrew Wootton, Rachel Cooper, and Mike Press. “Design Against Crime: Extending the Reach of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design.” Security Journal 18.1 (2005): 39-51. Print. Deutsch, William. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: Planning to Prevent Crime. Business Security, 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. . Ekblom, Paul, Rachel Armitage, Leanne Monchuk, and Ben Castell. “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design in the United Arab Emirates: A Suitable Case for Reorientation?” Built Environment, 39.1 (2013): 92-113. Print. Marzbali, Massoomeh, Aldrin Abdullah, Nordin Razak, and Mohamed Javad. “A Review of the Effectiveness of Crime Prevention by Design Approaches towards Sustainable Development.” Journal of Sustainable Development 4.1 (2011): 160-172. Print. Welsh, Brandon, and David Farrington. The Oxford Handbook of Crime Prevention. New York, NY: Oxford University, 2012. Print. Wootton, Andrew, and Melisa Marselle. “City Centre Crime: Cooling Crime Hotspots by Design.” British Criminology 8.1 (2008): 187-204. Print. Read More