The Role Of Physical Environment In Crime Prevention And Safety In Residential District

Criminal events happen when four indispensable elements concur: a latent criminal, a favorable crime situation, a proper time and an attractive and vulnerable target. Criminal behavior depends on opportunity, anonymity, convenient operation and quick escape that are related to the environment. The environment will affect criminals' cognitive system so that they will have to consider the "payoff" in such setting. Modification in environment will lead to a change in crime rate. As a result, skillful environmental design contributes to discourage crime motive, and then prevent criminal behavior positively. The crime rates in China's residential districts tend to soar resulting from speeding urbanization. The existed community layout cannot meet the need of dwelling safety as pilferage, which annoys social policing, can be often seen in residential districts. Architects cannot get away with this confrontation, they should be aware that the proper environmental design not only promotes neighboring, but also improves community safety to some extent. For the reasons above, this paper tries to make a careful probe into the role of physical environment of urban residential district in crime prevention and community safety. The Defensible Space Theory and several principles in China's community building will be taken as theoretical background, with foreign research on physical environment and crime prevention and the feasible-for-China strategies and mechanics of crime prevention in residential environment, as a sum-up by the writer, firstly expounded on. And then, the paper ends with an application of those skills, strategies and mechanics in a case study of redesign-against-crime conception based on crime prevention for Huaqiaoercun Community in Wuhan City.