Environmental Design

This is a place-based intervention that uses closed-circuit television and signage at high-crime addresses to deter or reduce crime and improve public safety. The program is rated Ineffective for reducing reported disorder and violent crime.

This program was a place-based crime policing initiative implemented for 1 year to reduce violent crime. Risk-based policing initiatives promote data-informed decisions based on a process of defining the problem, gathering information, and analyzing data. The program is rated Promising. The program resulted in a statistically significant reduction of 22.6 percent in violent crimes in the intervention areas, compared with the comparison areas.

This is a police-driven, collaborative, place-based crime-reduction approach focused on a target neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla. The program is rated Promising. The initiative resulted in statistically significant reductions in total crime in both areas of the target neighborhood at the two post-intervention periods and a statistically significant reduction in burglary in one area. There were no statistically significant reductions in disorderly offenses and mixed results on the number of assaults.

This program used banners indicating that a cyber infrastructure was cared for and supervised to reduce crime in the cyber environment. The program is rated Promising. During a 90-day period, the treatment condition had statistically significant reductions in user activities during system trespassing sessions and the average number of commands typed into the attacked computer, and in the likelihood of system trespassers returning to the hacked environment, compared with a control condition.

This strategy sought to reduce crime in Philadelphia by testing three different patrol strategies. The program is rated Ineffective. Relative to control areas, there was no statistically significant difference in violent or property crimes in areas using one of two of the patrol strategies. Property crimes in an area using one of the strategies saw a statistically significant decrease, while there was a statistically significant increase in violent crime in areas using two of the strategies.

This is a police substation operating within a business improvement district in Newark (N.J.) with the goal of reducing crime in the target area. The program is rated Promising. There were statistically significant reductions in burglary and motor vehicle theft in the treated area compared with a control area over the entire 6-year postintervention period. There were no statistically significant differences in robbery, aggravated assault, or theft from auto.

This was an intervention to reduce crime and delinquency in urban areas by remediating vacant land. The program is rated Promising. Compared with the control area, treatment areas experienced statistically significant reductions in gun assaults, burglary, nuisances, shootings (overall and per kilometer), and all crimes overall. However, the intervention showed mixed results with regard to drug offense rates and no statistically significant effect on robbery/theft rates.

This is a police-operated public surveillance program that seeks to reduce crime and increase crime clearances (i.e., arrests) by installing new closed-circuit television cameras at high-crime, high-traffic intersections in Milwaukee (Wis.). The program is rated Promising. Intersections in intervention areas where new cameras were installed had a statistically significant higher rate of crime clearances for all crime types, compared with intersections in comparison areas.

This is a temporary outdoor street-lighting program designed to reduce nighttime crime in public housing developments experiencing elevated crime rates. The program is rated Promising. Installing additional light towers in treated developments resulted in statistically significant reductions in complaints of index crimes, felony crimes, assaults, homicides, and weapons crimes at night, compared with control developments. There were no statistically significant differences in misdemeanor crimes.

This environmental crime-prevention measure was enacted as a city ordinance and required property owners of abandoned buildings (that often serve as havens for illicit drugs and related crime) to install working doors and windows in all structural openings or be subject to significant fines. This program is rated Promising. The results show that the program was associated with statistically significant citywide reductions in overall crimes and all nuisance crimes, but not in violent gun crimes.

This is a law-enforcement model in which both location-based crime and automobile crash data is analyzed to determine where such incidents disproportionately occur (“hot spots”) and to employ targeted traffic enforcement strategies. The program is rated Promising. The areas of targeted enforcement experienced statistically significant declines in robberies, burglaries, and traffic crashes.

Keeper Boxes are clear, polycarbonate boxes that are designed to protect so-called hot products in retail stores by placing selected merchandise in the sturdy lock boxes. The program is rated Promising. At the 13-week follow-up, shrinkage (or unexplained unit loss) statistically significantly decreased by 52 percent while sales statistically significantly increased by 69 percent in the experimental stores that used Keeper Boxes compared with the control stores that did not use Keeper Boxes.

A crime prevention strategy designed to reduce crime in Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority parking facilities through the introduction of digital cameras at the exits of the parking facilities to capture images of patrons’ license plates as they exited the facility. The program is rated as Ineffective. Crime rates (including car-related, property, and violent crimes) remained at pre-camera levels in parking facilities.

In the Netherlands, a large-scale government intervention led to a regulation requiring built-in home security in all newly constructed homes. The program is rated Promising. The regulatory change statistically significantly reduced the risk of burglary by 26 percent compared with homes built in the years prior to the passage of the regulation. There were no statistically significant effects on measures of attempted burglary.

This program is a federal initiative under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which began in 1992, to eradicate severely distressed public housing and to reconstruct sites with more livable housing. The program is rated Promising. The target sites experienced a statistically significant decrease in crime during the stability period (after redevelopment had taken place and most residents had moved into new units), compared with the comparison sites.

This is a community-based program to reduce underage drinking and alcohol-related offenses. The program is rated Promising. Intervention sites reported statistically significant reductions in DUI and nighttime crashes, average drinking quantity and variance, police-reported assaults, and EMS calls involving assault and motor vehicle crashes, compared with control sites. There was no difference in ED assaults, police reports of public drunkenness, or EMS calls involving alcohol or other drugs.

This is a focused policing strategy, designed to reduce violent crime in high-crime locations in Jersey City, N.J., by modifying specific characteristics and situations that promote violence in targeted areas. The program is rated Promising. Total citizen calls for service and total reported criminal incidents were reduced in treatment locations, compared with control locations. These findings were statistically significant.

This is a crime-reduction strategy that uses a disorder-policing approach to improve physical and social order in high-crime locations in Lowell, Mass. This program is rated Effective. High-crime locations experienced statistically significant reductions in calls for service and in social and physical disorder, compared with control areas.

This program consists of installing closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, to deter crime in five cities in England. The program is rated Promising. Intervention sites that installed CCTV cameras experienced a statistically significant reduction in assault-related emergency department visits, compared with control sites that did not install CCTV cameras. However, there was no statistically significant difference between intervention and control sites in police-reported violent offenses.

This program consists of using closed-circuit television cameras in the town center and adjacent car parks, or parking lots, in Gillingham, England. The program is rated Promising. The treatment area where the cameras were installed experienced a statistically significant reduction in overall crime, compared with the comparison area.

This is a program designed to reduce crime by improving street lighting in residential areas. This program is rated Effective. There were statistically significant reductions in prevalence, incidence, and fear of crime in the experimental area compared with the control area. In addition, a statistically significant higher percentage of residents in the control area reported knowing someone who had been the victim of a crime compared with residents in the experimental area.

This program encourages developers to implement crime prevention features in housing designs. The key principles of the program concern physical security, surveillance, access/egress, territoriality, management, and maintenance. The program is rated Promising. The findings reveal statistically significant lower crime rates in the intervention estates, compared with the estates in the comparison group.

This program installed closed-circuit television cameras to monitor public space in different locations around the city of Philadelphia, PA. This program is rated Promising. The intervention showed a statistically significant reduction in disorder crime and the number of crime events in the target areas, compared with the control areas. However, no significant differences were found for serious crimes in the target areas, compared with the control areas.

This is a crime prevention program that consists of the installation of gates to alleyways in Liverpool, England, to reduce burglaries. The gates restrict access to local residents only, thus reducing opportunities for potential crime. The program is rated Effective. Treatment areas that implemented alley gates had a statistically significant reduction in burglaries, compared with comparison areas.