Role of Environmental Design Essay

These urban centers’ expansion was accompanied by an unprecedented number of both good and negative effects. One of the bad effects was an increase in crime. Despite being around for many millennia, crime rates recently went through the roof. Due to high fertility rates, the population has quickly grown since 1960. The high unemployment rate, which is thought to be the main factor contributing to an increase in crime, has been coupled with the senior community. (Bureau of Census).

It is thought that the layout of communities and the surroundings directly influence crime. Researchers have proposed strategies for managing biological and housing structures that could reduce crime in the US. The difference of secure places and insecure places is evident by how these areas appear to individuals. For instance, a place that looks hospitable is more likely to be more confident than difficult places. Individuals have opted to barbed wire fencing among other structures to reduce crime, (Felson, 1995). To minimize the possibility of wrongdoing, some communities encourage the construction of high rise buildings for settlement. These structures are often much more secure than conventional housing designs. Some approaches can, therefore, be put in place to benefit not one but the majority of people in the community.

Local design Model

In the model, Local Design against Crime, Jacobs proposed the use of space to control crime. The model involves strategies that change the culture, infrastructural composition or physical structures. A couple of approaches such as Community policing and urban design are incorporated to curb crime and community disorders. In their book ‘Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design’ (1971, Newman and Ray Jeffrey explained how people could use space to devise better housing to minimize crime. Ray and his followers generated crucial knowledge on the use of these principles in real life to carefully design new places. The model suggested that through an application of community-based approaches we can develop our way out of crime, i.e., enjoy the benefits of these designs in a crime-free environment.

Crime mapping is used to recognize immediate structures for violations, for example, private and commercial theft, auto burglary, and robbery from vehicles. For instance, spatial investigation of auto robbery occurrences may uncover bunches of action at particular areas that may show a crime designs. Crime mapping assists police and other security agencies to illustrate crime activity to the public, (Rossmo et al. 2004). Members of the public can, therefore, be aware and cautious while visiting specific places or even avoid the highlighted locations. Crime mapping provides useful information that can be used to arrest offenders thus securing crime prevailed places. A properly executed crime is likened to a shark attack. Offenders identify their victims in hotels and restaurants that get visits from many customers. Authorities are less likely to identify them as their activities are highly synchronized. To curb this kind of events, company management can incorporate different problem-oriented strategies to prevent the use of their premises for criminal activities. An example of a solution was in Manhattan when McDonald’s found out that the offenders were cutting their cushions so that they can insert substances. The management went on to replace the seats without cushions to make the conditions unfavorable for offenders.

In line with tracking down an offender, traffic control can be used to arrest offenders.To manage traffic, one popular strategy is a closing of streets (Clarke, 2005). Once a road is closed, offenders have no alternative escape routes due to their imperfect knowledge of the area. Residents can efficiently monitor their neighborhoods and easily identify offenders. A similar method of privatizing a street worked in St. Louis as noticed by Newman. Reduced crime rates were immediately reported. Researchers have however questioned this technique citing the increase of drive-by shootings in most neighborhoods, notably Los Angeles. Critics argue that closing the streets excludes people contradicting the street design model which does not eliminate people. Traffic engineers have therefore approved traffic calming as a useful technique for handling crime. All road users are forced to slow down at bumps in residential areas (Scott, 2001).

Situational Crime Prevention

Clarke stated that crime is a result of human situation and opportunities. He revised less expensive ways to reduce crime. Situational Crime Prevention model is a policy situated approach whose objective is to curb crime in future (Clarke, 1980). Clarke adopted some policies for his theory. He urged his audience not to worry about academic theories but gather crime facts from the ground for themselves. He merely meant that Science should only collect points and you should learn from them. Clarke called for authorities to focus keenly on specific crimes no matter how small they can be. He explained that such crimes might be broad when investigated. Another policy he put out was the use of simple statistics to analyze regular crime patterns. “Do not try to improve Human character; you are certain to fail” is a policy that Clarke pointed out correctly to refer to the time’s institutions such as prisons try to improve the characters of prisoners. Clarke further claims that he is not interested in theories but practical ideas and measures to reduce crime.

Basing upon the presumptions influenced, most criminological models try to clarify criminal conduct either as the reaction of offenders to large-scale level, sociocultural factors such social detriment and economic disparity or as an outflow of an illegal air made by every individual guilty party’s organic cosmetics and educational encounters. Situational examinations inspect neither the sociological scope of culpability nor the advancement of criminal miens, and possible reactions of the approach fixate on these omissions. It might be agreed that situational counteractive action has a hypothesis base. However, those speculations don’t inspect factors, for example, poverty, disparity, segregation, poor child rearing, etc., which are the primary driver of wrongdoing. By concentrating on the execution of criminal conduct, situational aversion assaults side effects and not hidden, foundational causes. It can, best case scenario gives a down to earth, a stop-hole answer for crime issues.

Social Change and Crimes: A Routine Activity Approach

This is a model that presents the approaches and activities for analyzing crime rate and cycles. Other than basing the argument on the position and character of offenders, this model concentrates on the conditions that favor predatory criminal activities. Most criminal acts utilize available space and time of likely guilty parties, appropriate targets and the absence of skilled guardians against crime. Human biological theories encourage an examination concerning the path in which social structure creates this meeting, subsequently enabling illicit exercises to bolster upon the legal practices of regular day to day existence. Explicitly, we theorize that the dispersion of methods far from families and households builds the open door for crime and subsequently produces higher crime rates. Predatory violations are illegal acts performed to a person or property intentionally. The three minimal elements for predatory crime to occur include, motivational offenders, suitable targets, and absence of skilled guardians to prevent the occurrence of crime.

Targeted property by offenders tends to have specific qualities that are only present in certain commodities. For instance, offenders tend to opt for valuable goods and places. Residents living in a low standard area are less likely to be subjected to violent criminal activities due to their small incomes, compared to their counterparts in high-end residential places. Technology and innovation have also provided alternatives to counter offenders. Victims can use protective tools, skills, and weapons at their disposal to defend themselves. Equipment such as phones, telephones, small tools may assist victims to help themselves or others in case of an attack.

Conclusion

In conclusion, all the models and theories reviewed somehow offer solution to the reduction and eminent elimination of crime. Majority are property based as others concentrate on the victims and predator. A common occurrence is that a predator would prefer a bigger store or rather a richer individual to small stores or poor person. This is obviously due to the higher returns compared to finding less resources when robbing the latter. Crime patterns have improved with technology as ways to curb crimes also improved. The crime topic is turning to be an ongoing problem with more people getting unemployed. A major policy to reduce unemployment seems to be the only long lasting solution to the rising crime rates in America.

References

Clarke, R.V. (2005). Seven misconceptions of situational crime prevention. In N. Tilley (ed),

Handbook of crime prevention and community safety, Cullompton, UK: Willan.

Cohen, L. and Marcus F. (1979) “On estimating the social costs of national economic

policy: a critical examination of the Brenner study.” Social Indicators Research. In press.

Newman, O. (1972). Defensive Space: People And Design in The violent City. New York:

Macmillan.

Rossmo, D. K., & Velarde, L. (2008). Geographic profiling analysis: Principles, methods, and

applications. In S. Chainey & S. Tompson (Eds.), Crime mapping case studies: Practice and research (pp. 35-43). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.