Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)

The way Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) works is to deter criminal and anti-social behaviour through the design, layout and specification of buildings and the spaces around and between them, that serve to reduce easy opportunities for crime to be committed. It is argued that more crimes are committed where a criminal feels more comfortable committing them, for instance where a physical environment offers easy unrestricted or at least uncontrolled access, where clear messages of ownership are absent, where either or natural and formal surveillance are absent or where wrong doers feel free to move within an area assured of their anonymity.