Online Internship Program

Reflection Paper on the

Webinar of
Peace and Security in the Community:
The Lasting Legacy to Progress

Batch “DIMATINAG”
2nd Semester S.Y. 2021 – 2022

Submitted by:

CI CHRISTIAN ALLEN S. LOPENA

BS Criminology
In the beginning of the Webinar, there was an introduction of the participating
schools along with their respective deans. After that an opening prayer was
presented followed by the playing of our National Anthem and the UC hymn. The
opening remarks is was given by Atty. Dodelon F. Sabijon in which he welcomes
all criminology interns, coordinators, partner schools and most importantly the
guest speaker Shamir. This international webinar was prepared for us by the
internship officers of UC and shared to all partner schools. This international
webinar has given us insights in what to do as police officers in order to maintain
our community. It has also increased our knowledge through the teachings of the
guest speaker from Malaysia and inspires us more to do our duties and citizens
of the Philippines as well as being students of Criminal Justice. The host speaker
then proceeds on the introduction of Dr. Gerry J. Cano along with his numerous
titles and achievements. Dr. Gerry J. Cano then gives thanks to the people who
prepared this webinar and welcomes all participants from all schools and most
especially the guest speaker. He then talks about how he can inspire us even
though we are undergoing a pandemic and the ongoing conflict of both Russia
and Ukraine. He tells us to keep having hope and faith as we continue and
navigate and struggle in life. He now begins explaining about peace and security
which he mentions the Republic Act 11131 which is an act regulating the practice
of criminology profession in the Philippines, and appropriating funds therefor,
repealing for the purpose Republic Act No. 6506, otherwise known as “an act
creating the board of examiners for criminologists in the Philippines”. Under
Section 2 of the law, the State Policy mentions that the State recognizes the
importance of criminology profession in national security, public safety, peace
and order, and in nation-building and development. Hence, it shall develop and
nurture competent, virtuous, productive and well-rounded criminologists whose
standards of professional practice and service shall be excellent, qualitative,
world-class and globally competitive through sacred, honest, effective and
credible licensure examinations, coupled with programs and activities that would
promote professional growth and development. Two very powerful words,
SECURITY and SAFETY is very enshrined in our law not only in the practice of
the criminology profession but soon in the direction of the criminology education
and the landscape as to how students of this discipline and this program can be
educated and learn the dynamics of peace and security. We must instill in
ourselves the vital role of criminology. Peace wherever we go in the world is
basically the same in all its fundamentals. Security on the other hand, its
principles basically tell us that what we are looking for be it Physical Security,
Economic Security, Social Security, Political Security, National Security and
Public Safety All the fundamental principles and theories that we are looking into
are all the same in any community regardless of our race, nationality, country
and what government we are in. Therefore, peace and security is very essential.
Peace is the very path to attain security. Without it we cannot attain security.
Peace is the primordial element. The respect of human rights is very essential
when we talk about peace and security. Both cannot be attained if our very
people don’t understand the fundamentals of what human rights is about. As
criminology students we should understand the vital role and contribution of
human rights in the perspective of peace and security. There can never be peace
and security if there is absence of human rights. The fundamentals of human
rights is so important that it should be enshrined in our hearts and in our minds
as we profess and practice the criminology profession and be involved in the
criminology education. When you speak about peace and security, the rule of law
is a very essential requirement for us to better appreciate and understand how
society and its dynamics should be able to run in what is beneficial to all concern
and the general welfare of the people. People in the context of what peace and
security is all about should consider equal opportunity for others. Security has
already defined several facets, aspects, dimensions not only in the physical
security that we should be legible to be involved because the entire picture of
peace and development captures all dynamics, dimensions, aspects of society.
The kind of peace and security in the Philippines is basically the same in all
countries all over the world. If we are all deeply knowledgeable, concerned and
engaged with what security and peace is all about then we can be peace
advocates and security practitioners in all parts of the globe as our law Republic
Act 11131 provides the foreign western philosophy that allows the practice of the
criminology profession in other countries. Peace and Security is the bedrock of
the development and prosperity as a people, as a country and as the human
race. And that was the conclusion of his speech. The female host then thanks
him and quotes what he just said. Peace and security is very important because
it captures all aspects of the society. With human rights it goes hand in hand with
peace and security. We as members of society and future leaders who will affect
laws and safety, routinely response to situations with intense emotion to negative
outlooks and we will come to understand and narrow down effective ways to
maintain peace and security in communities we live in. After that she now
introduces the expert speaker for this webinar. He is a criminologist who
specializes in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design or CPTED. He Is
also a director of the International Association and is the only certified CPTED
practitioner by the ICA in South East Asia. He is the co-founder of Prevent Crime
Now and it is one of the most talked about practical safety and crime prevention
programs in Malaysia. He is an international speaker and consultation crime
prevention and has conducted training and consultation for over 150
corporations. He is also the co-producer of the Crime Prevention online mini-
series which has over a million views. He has also been featured in various TV,
radio shows, newspapers and magazines locally and internationally. His goals is
to educate the public on practical ways of crime prevention and help build safer
communities so that the future generations will be able to grow up in safe and
healthy spaces. Shamir has experience in conducting various forms of
workshops which focuses on empowerment, practical self defense and personal
safety. He holds a 2nd DAN (Degree) Taekwondo Black Belt, is a 3 time Gold
Medalist for sparring, and has practiced Aikido, Boxing and Kick-Boxing. He is a
crime safety specialist that focuses on simple and effective crime prevention
methods to help reduce the risk of you and your loved one from becoming
victims. Shamir strongly believes in and strives towards giving people the ability
to protect what they value most – themselves and their loved ones. His
philosophy is that not everyone will be mentally and physically prepared to face
an unexpected confrontation. Shamir co-founded Breakaway – one of the most
talked about practical safety and crime prevention programmes in Malaysia.
Shamir is the Co-Producer of the crime prevention online mini-series “kuasa
wanita di sini” which has Millions of views. Shamir has also been featured in
various TV and Radio talk shows, Newspapers and magazines. Shamir’s goal is
to educate the public on practical ways of crime prevention and mentally prepare
them for unwarranted confrontations. His methods are designed for individuals of
any size, gender and physique. The main idea is to prevent crime to protect
ourselves and our loved ones without getting hurt in the process. Shamir often
provides consultations for various companies, individual groups and
organizations on how they can improve safety for themselves, their families and
their staff. He designs ways on how they can minimize risks by providing
personalized consultations to suit the needs of his clientele. Backed with a good
amount of experience, Shamir advices companies on methods of crime
prevention so as not to be targeted by demonstrating how criminals operate. He
advises them on imminent security risks and how they may work to reduce it. His
passion takes him further in his business career where he now contributes and
play a key role in helping a technology company in inventing alternative systems
that integrates senses, security and safety which potentially can minimize
environment threats or danger. Shamir has appeared on numerous public and
private talks on speaker’s engagements with thousands of audiences in private
colleges, universities, events and conferences of organizations around Malaysia.
He continues to dedicate time and effort to speak about Crime Prevention and
Safety Environment subject matters and how simple an individual can avoid
threat, prevent further harmful incidences and safeguard their love ones. Mr.
Shamir Rajadurai then thanks the host for the introduction and recalls his past
experiences in the Philippines and that he wants to come again to meet great
people and experts in Criminology. He now begins his explanation about Peace
and Security in the Community and what can be done to make sure this can
become a lasting legacy to progress. What’s important is that our kids are able to
grow up in a safe environment. Some of us have experienced growing up in
tough neighborhoods where it is very crime prone and it is not something we
would want for our future generations. A safe community has to have high fences
and walls because it keeps the community confined to its space. It needs to have
guards so you are in a gated and guarded neighborhood. High walls and fences
prevent intruders to come in easily. Guards makes sure there is access control to
the area. But not all of these is necessarily true. What you want in the end of the
day is to build a community or neighborhood that is beautiful, gives you less fear
of crime and allow kids to grow freely. It doesn’t need to have high walls or
fences, it doesn’t need to have guards. At the end of the day what we are
building is a safe neighborhood not prisons.A safe community is a community
where people can live, work and play without fear or risk of injury. We all want to
go back and come back home at night and still feel safe. The Social
Disorganization Theory states that how people act within their neighborhood
defines wether people commit crime or not. In Routine Activities Theory it
explains that for crime to happen there must be three elements. There must be a
motivated offender, a suitable target or victim and the absence of a capable
guardian. Every criminal is different, depending on how daring or brave that
criminal is determines a capable guardian or not. That is why the concept of a
capable guardian is very subjective. Mr. Shamir then explains about the Kitty
Genovese Incident/ Bystander Effect where in 1964 a woman named Kitty
Genovese was chased down, sexually assaulted, and murdered in her
neighborhood. 38 witnesses were aware that it was taking place yet chose to do
nothing to help the dying woman. Because it happened in front of so many
people. Everybody assumed that somebody was going to call the police or
somebody else going to step in and help. That is what we call the bystander
effect. A lot of research has shown that the less people that are in the area there
is a higher chance that you are going to get help. Instead of an area which is full
of people. People will always wait for one person to step in front and help, only
then will the rest of the crowd follow. Next we have is the Broken Window Theory
and why it is so important in building safer communities. A neighborhood which is
not well-kept invites crime because it shows that no one cares for the
neighborhood enough. In reality, we face crime threats everyday. It can happen
to anyone, any place and at any time. Knowing the fundamental way how to
avoid it is a MUST. It requires no hard work and NO martial art practice. With
today’s crime rate rising, Practical Crime Prevention is regarded as an important
aspect of life. You will be guided on how to effectively ‘Breakaway’ from the
attacker, the reality of crime will be highlight for your better understanding and to
assist in reducing the risk of victimization.  Our main principle is, not to inflict
injury but rather to be able to escape when you are in threat of crime, safely. It is
always a priceless move of any family or organizations to take extra precaution
and measures to care for their members of their family and love ones on a
personal level. Many organizations come forward to hire Shamir to ensure proper
precaution has been implemented to ensure the safety of their staff. Many
families on a personal basis have hired Shamir to coach the family members on
private arrangement, on crime safety aspects so each and everyone know what
to do and not do, when it comes to crime threatening situation, and safety
measures in the house. Practical self-defense is an important aspect for
everyone, of any age. One can never know when your child is at threat or he or
she can save another person’s child when it happens near you. It is of our
concern to fine tune ways and continuously teach children to protect and safely
prevent themselves from being harmed when at threat. Perceived as young
helpless individual, children can be a victim of bullies, kidnappers or even crime
victims of adults. With our enhanced techniques for children, they now can be
thought to have the very basic skills on how they can stay safe at times of threat,
without the need to learn martial arts. Crime prevention through environmental
design (CPTED) is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behavior
through environmental design. CPTED is best described as ‘building an entire
urban neighborhood where each contributes an amount of opportunity for “eyes
on the street” for one another. Shamir welcomes collaborations with urban
developers that share the same mission like his to provide safe environment of
living and built future safe neighborhoods. Crime Prevention Through
Environmental Design (CPTED) is a multi-disciplinary approach for reducing
crime and fear of crime. CPTED strategies aim to reduce victimization, deter
offender decisions that precede criminal acts, and build a sense of community
among inhabitants so they can gain territorial control of areas to reduce crime
opportunities. CPTED uses architecture, urban planning, and facility
management and it is sometimes termed Design out Crime (DOC), Defensible
Space or Crime Prevention Through Urban Development (CPT-UD). It also
addresses the social environment by building a sense of community in areas
thereby reducing the motivations for crime. This distinction between crime
opportunity and crime motive is where CPTED divides into First and Second
Generation (that history is described below). Although First Generation CPTED
did not originally provide specific strategies to build social cohesion, well-
seasoned practitioners will recognize that the physical environment cannot be
divorced from the social environment in which it operates. CPTED is among the
most resilient crime prevention theories of the modern era, primarily because it
works so well in practice and because, on the surface, many CPTED solutions
appear common sense. However, in practice, implementation of CPTED
solutions often lacks a rigorous process of analysis and application which results
in simplified and poorly thought-out solutions. Poorly applied CPTED strategies
can inadvertently cause harm by excluding some legitimate groups from areas or
by displacing crime to other areas. This is why the ICA has been
professionalizing the field of CPTED through education, research, certification,
and instituting a CPTED Code of Ethics with all its members. The International
CPTED Association - ICA is an international non-profit association founded in
Calgary, Canada in 1996. The ICA promotes the use of CPTED globally and
supports local organizations, practitioners and communities that utilize CPTED
principles to create safer communities and environments. The CPTED movement
first emerged from the urban planning critique of journalist Jane Jacobs’ in her
book THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES (Jacobs, 1961).
Jacobs introduced urban design concepts such as locating people onto public
streets, what she called “eyes onto the street”, in order to deter offenders from
offending with impunity. She also suggested that mixed land uses and other
elements of community-building and participation creates a sense of community
and enhances the “unconscious network of informal social controls” existing to
control crime. In the 1970s, Architect Oscar Newman’s book DEFENSIBLE
SPACE (Newman, 1972), and criminologist C. Ray Jeffery’s book CRIME
PREVENTION THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN (Jeffery, 1971), gave
CPTED its official name and also solidified the concept by launching the CPTED
movement as an effective way to prevent crime and build a sense of
community. From the earliest years the CPTED concept included ideas to
motivate positive attitudes (later called “motive reinforcement”) as well as ideas
to reduce physical opportunities for crime (later called “target hardening”)
(Cozens, 2016). These social and physical dimensions still exist in the CPTED
movement today, although there is debate whether “target hardening” belongs
within CPTED or within technical security, since the term seldom appears in any
of the original writing of the CPTED pioneers. It was Newman’s defensible space
that held sway in the early years. His concept, now called First Generation
CPTED, divides into four principles (Newman, 1972): Territoriality / Territorial
control. Through the design of semi-public spaces in residential areas, or the use
of other architectural strategies as outlined below, it is possible to help residents
assume informal ownership of public spaces thereby making it difficult for
offenders to offend with impunity. When residents see spaces around their
homes as their own, they are more likely to take care of those spaces and exert
some positive influence over them. Strategically locating safe activities, such as
food vendors, also helps establish territorial control of unsafe areas. Natural
surveillance. Closely linked to territorial influence, Newman employed Jacob’s
eyes-on-the-street and described how to construct places to maximize resident’s
ability to casually observe semi-public spaces. This is achieved through lighting,
landscaping, clear sight-lines, and other design forms that enhance visibility to
reduce crime opportunities and lower fear. Image and Milieu. Newman also felt
that the social characteristics of residents was linked to urban safety, such as
their perception of nearby areas, whether they were fearful of public areas, and
the conditions of nearby land uses. He proposed mini-neighborhoods where
residents could better know one another and he cautioned against building
residential properties nearby other areas with high crime rates. Linked to the idea
of milieu was the concept of image. This was the idea that the physical condition
and maintenance of properties signaled that an area was cared-for or neglected,
and therefore safer or unsafe. Image programs include graffiti removal, litter
clean ups, and beautification. Access control. Although not subdivided as
separate category in Newman’s work, access control supported territorial
influence by using architectural strategies to limit access into properties. The idea
was to help those who had legitimate purpose residing or managing properties to
control access into their properties. This included street access controls such as
road barriers, to create mini-neighborhoods in residential areas or landscaping to
control access into the fronts of buildings. Over the years a number of
modifications appeared within CPTED following various experiments and studies,
such as the Westinghouse CPTED projects (Westinghouse National Issues
Center, 1978) in the 1970s and various urban planning projects in later years.
The insertion of target hardening into CPTED, and the removal of motive
reinforcement, signaled a shift away from social cohesion and neighborhood
renewal toward a focus on physical, crime-opportunity reduction. This was
informed, no doubt, by academic studies beginning in the late 1970s and early
1980s about crime and opportunities. “In the seventies, offender-based research
started to focus on the rational spatial and environmental choices made by
offenders.” (van Soomeren, 1996). New concepts in the geography of crime,
known as environmental criminology (Brantingham & Brantingham, 1981), were
added to CPTED such as activity generators, crime displacement, and
movement predictors. Social descriptions of citizen participation and
strengthening community supports were replaced with spatial descriptions of
urban locations thereby shifting focus from the residents of an area to offender
decision-making. Thus, in 1997, a presentation at the annual conference of the
International CPTED Association, introduced the concept of Second Generation
CPTED (Cleveland & Saville, 1997). The Second Generation CPTED
reintroduced social concepts back into CPTED to redress the imbalance with
opportunity reduction in physical places. However, unlike social crime prevention
programs of earlier years that focused broadly to large swaths of the community,
Second Generation CPTED employed a focus on small-scale environments,
what is termed a proximal orientation. It was the proximal orientation that linked
Second and First Generation CPTED as one coherent community-building
theory. Second Generation concepts drew from the emerging sociological
research on “collective efficacy” and land use capacity (Saville & Wong, 1991;
1994; Ministry of Justice, 1994; Sampson and Lauritson, 1990; 1994; Spelman,
1992; Gillis, 1974). It also included principles of political connectedness and
culture that appear in subsequent literature (Kilburn et al., 2014). The principles
of Second Generation CPTED include: Social cohesion. Cohesion strategies
enhance positive social relations between residents, but with a specific focus on
solving local problems. Programs include strategies such as Neighborhood
Watch to reduce burglary or social groups interested in quality of life. Social
cohesion strategies often involve groups creating action plans to tackle difficult
problems. A key element of social cohesion is that social programs are proximal
– they are targeted directly within the local neighborhood, not across the whole
city. Additionally, they usually employ 1st Generation CPTED to reinforce the
social programming. Community culture. Community culture programs get people
together to create a sense of common purpose. In this case the goal is different
from cohesion strategies that work on specific problems. Community culture
programs help reinforce 1st Generation CPTED by helping residents create a
sense of community and form a strong bond to each other. These connections
sometimes relate to cultural events within the neighborhood, art and music
festivals, and placemaking activities that get people of all genders, ages, and
ethnic backgrounds to get them to know one another. Connectivity. Internally-
focused neighborhoods sometimes have a tendency to exclude others from the
neighborhood or create exclusionary programs that ignore the wider community.
This is known in planning as the “not-in-my-backyard” syndrome (Kilburn et al.,
2014) and in recent years First Generation CPTED has been criticized as being
exclusionary of some ethnic or income groups (Lee, 2020). Connectivity
programs link neighbors with other surrounding neighborhoods through alliances,
formal lines of communication, and other strategies to connect and remain
inclusive. Connectivity strategies can be physical (such as linked walkways) or
social (such as shared neighborhood events). As well, connectivity strategies
also link neighborhoods to other levels of government, for example to obtain
government funding grants to create new programs. Threshold Capacity. The last
concept relates to Jacobs initial ideas for creating rich and genuine diversity
within the built environment. She believed that land use and demographic
diversity was a small scale phenomenon that should appear in all neighborhoods.
The concept of threshold capacity proposes multiple-land uses within the
neighborhood where residents can socialize (parks), shop for groceries (food
outlets), and recreate (sports or entertainment). Capacity strategies also guard
against land uses that detract from safety in a place, such as too many alcohol-
serving establishments or drug-dealing locations, thereby creating land uses with
criminogenic conditions (Saville, 1996). As with all CPTED principles, there are
no single strategies that will reduce all crime; they should be applied in
combinations based on a thorough analysis of the local context. However, the
history of CPTED suggests that comprehensive urban planning and community
development requires consideration of all First and Second Generation CPTED
principles. The international movement to reduce and prevent crime through
urban design is called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
(CPTED). The initial idea arose through the writing of journalist Jane Jacobs
(1961) who wrote that we can use physical environments to reduce crime. The
CPTED name itself was initially created by Professor C. Ray Jeffery (1971) and
later expanded by Architect Oscar Newman in his book on Defensible Space
(1972). Today CPTED is led by the International CPTED Association (ICA), a
professional non-government organization dedicated to implementing CPTED
around the world. The ICA's mission is: "To create safer environments and
improve the quality of life through the use of CPTED principles and strategies."
Greg Saville, Barry Davidson and Paul Wong formed the International CPTED
(Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) Association in November of
1996 at our first conference in Calgary. As our name implies, we are dedicated to
safe communities and improving the quality of life by implementation, promotion,
and further development of CPTED strategies and design concepts. The ICA
began as a venue to share ideas about CPTED and other crime prevention
strategies and has grown from there. Today the ICA currently has a membership
of over 200 in 33 countries! Membership includes planners, architects,
developers, police, security professionals, academics, and others interested in
incorporating urban safety planning and CPTED. Since 1996, members of the
ICA enhanced CPTED into a broader concept of “urban environments”, and
today those concepts include preventing crime through physical/architectural
environments, through neighborhood-based social environments, and, most
recently, through cultural and psychological environments. These concepts are
known respectively as 1st Generation, 2nd Generation, and 3rdGeneration
CPTED. This broader version of CPTED has a significant advantage over
traditional crime and justice because strategies like arrest and imprisonment do
not take place until after the crime has already happened. As such, they hack at
the branches of crime causation after the fact. By comparison, CPTED, aims to
dig at the roots of crime by examining the places where crime happen and the
opportunities and motives for crime. CPTED strategies rely upon the ability to
influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts. Research into criminal
behavior shows that the decision to offend or not to offend is more influenced by
cues to the perceived risk of being caught than by cues to reward or ease of
entry. Certainty of being caught is the main deterrence for criminals not the
severity of the punishment so by raising the certainty of being captured, criminal
actions will decrease. Consistent with this research, CPTED based strategies
emphasise enhancing the perceived risk of detection and apprehension.
Consistent with the widespread implementation of defensible space guidelines in
the 1970s, most implementations of CPTED by 2004 were based solely upon the
theory that the proper design and effective use of the built environment can
reduce crime, reduce the fear of crime, and improve the quality of life. Built
environment implementations of CPTED seek to dissuade offenders from
committing crimes by manipulating the built environment in which those crimes
proceed from or occur. The six main concepts according to Moffat are
territoriality, surveillance, access control, image/maintenance, activity support
and target hardening. Applying all of these strategies is key when trying to
prevent crime in any neighborhood crime ridden or not. Natural surveillance and
access control strategies limit the opportunity for crime. Territorial reinforcement
promotes social control through a variety of measures. Image/maintenance and
activity support provide the community with reassurance and the ability to inhibit
crime by citizen activities. Target hardening strategies round up all of these
techniques to resolve crime into one final step. Natural surveillance increases the
perceived risk of attempting deviant actions by improving visibility of potential
offenders to the general public. Natural surveillance occurs by designing the
placement of physical features, activities and people in such a way as to
maximize visibility of the space and its users, fostering positive social interaction
among legitimate users of private and public space. Potential offenders feel
increased scrutiny, and thus inherently perceive an increase in risk. This
perceived increase in risk extends to the perceived lack of viable and covert
escape routes. Natural surveillance measures can be complemented by
mechanical and organizational measures. For example, closed-circuit television
(CCTV) cameras can be added in areas where window surveillance is
unavailable. Natural access control limits the opportunity for crime by taking
steps to clearly differentiate between public space and private space. By
selectively placing entrances and exits, fencing, lighting and landscape to limit
access or control flow, natural access control occurs. Natural access control is
used to complement mechanical and operational access control measures, such
as target hardening. Territorial reinforcement promotes social control through
increased definition of space and improved proprietary concern. An environment
designed to clearly delineate private space does two things. First, it creates a
sense of ownership. Owners have a vested interest and are more likely to
challenge intruders or report them to the police. Second, the sense of owned
space creates an environment where "strangers" or "intruders" stand out and are
more easily identified. By using buildings, fences, pavement, signs, lighting and
landscape to express ownership and define public, semi-public and private
space, natural territorial reinforcement occurs. Additionally, these objectives can
be achieved by assignment of space to designated users in previously
unassigned locations. Territorial reinforcement measures make the normal user
feel safe and make the potential offender aware of a substantial risk of
apprehension or scrutiny. When people take pride in what they own and go to the
proper measures to protect their belongings, crime is deterred from those areas
because now it makes it more of a challenge. Maintenance and activity support
aspects of CPTED were touched upon in the preceding, but are often treated
separately because they are not physical design elements within the built
environment. Maintenance is an expression of ownership of property.
Deterioration indicates less control by the intended users of a site and indicate a
greater tolerance of disorder. The Broken Windows Theory is a valuable tool in
understanding the importance of maintenance in deterring crime. Broken
Windows theory proponents support a zero tolerance approach to property
maintenance, observing that the presence of a broken window will entice vandals
to break more windows in the vicinity. The sooner broken windows are fixed, the
less likely it is that such vandalism will occur in the future. Vandalism falls into the
broken windows category as well. The faster the graffiti is painted over, the less
likely one is to repeat because no one saw what has been done. Having a
positive image in the community shows a sense of pride and self-worth that no
one can take away from the owner of the property. Activity support increases the
use of a built environment for safe activities with the intent of increasing the risk
of detection of criminal and undesirable activities. Natural surveillance by the
intended users is casual and there is no specific plan for people to watch out for
criminal activity. By placing signs such as caution children playing and signs for
certain activities in the area, the citizens of that area will be more involved in
what is happening around them. They will be more tuned in to who is and who
isn't supposed to be there and what looks suspicious. CPTED strategies are
most successful when they inconvenience the end user the least and when the
CPTED design process relies upon the combined efforts of environmental
designers, land managers, community activists, and law enforcement
professionals. The strategies listed above can't be fulfilled without the
community's help and it requires the whole community in the location to make the
environment a safer place to live. A meta-analysis of multiple-component CPTED
initiatives in the United States has found that they have decreased robberies
between 30 and 84% (Casteel and Peek-Asa, 2000). In terms of effectiveness, a
more accurate title for the strategy would be crime deterrence through
environmental design. Research demonstrates that offenders might not always
be prevented from committing some crimes by using CPTED. CPTED relies upon
changes to the physical environment that will cause an offender to make certain
behavioral decisions, and some of those decisions will include desisting from
crime. Those changes deter rather than conclusively "prevent" behavior. Beyond
the attraction of being cost effective in lowering the incidence of crime, CPTED
typically reduces the overall costs of preventing crime. Retrofitting an existing
environment to meet CPTED can sometimes be costly, but when incorporated in
the original design phase of facility planning, cost of designing to CPTED
principles are often lower than with traditional approaches. Operational costs are
often lower also, as CPTED lighting designs can significantly lower energy use.
Adding to the attraction of CPTED is that it lowers liability. At times the entire
street style must be changed and buildings have to be up to code with more
windows and changing their view and access points to other areas around the
building like the parking lot or store front.