The Link Between Urban Design and Crime

New research from the Futures Institute reveals a link between the design of the built environment and crime rates, showing a possible way to reduce the need for police officers through “preemptive streetscape improvements.”

As Gersh Kuntzman explains in Streetsblog USA, “Simple improvements to the built environment — such as the lowest-hanging fruit of bright street lights as well as traffic-calming strategies — play an outsized and underappreciated role in reducing the violence that is plaguing so many communities and can help alter the default solution of sending in more cops.”

A section of the report titled “Investments in Built Design & Community Infrastructure” highlights the public space interventions that can help reduce crime including street design, access to transit, green space, and street lighting. The report points to reduced access points to neighborhoods as one way to reduce crime (though some urbanists might bristle at the thought of cul-de-sacs as a crime prevention tool).