Crime and the fear of crime are issues high in public concern and on political agendas in most developed countries. This book takes these issues and relates them to the contribution that urban planners and participative planning processes can make in response to these problems. Its focus is thus on the extent to which crime opportunities can be prevented or reduced through the design, planning and management of the built environment. The perspective of the book is TransAtlantic and comparative, not only because ideas and inspiration in this and many other fields increasingly move between countries but also because there is a great deal of relevant theoretical material and practice in both the USA and the UK which has not previously been pulled together in this systemic manner. The first part of the book looks at the context for understanding ideas and practice in this field. It introduces the key concepts of place-based crime prevention, and explores what we know both about the nature and scale of crime in the two countries and about some of the issues surrounding crime statistics.
The second part looks at policy and practice in the USA and the UK, with a full presentat both of how policy issues are perceived and handled nationally and of how this translates into practice on the ground via a series of case studies. The third part of the book makes a more formal comparison between the positions in the USA and the UK as they have been presented, before drawing some ideas and lessons out of this material to point the way forward. This book is for anyone who wants to know about how planning processes and crime prevention activities can be more effectively integrated. It is essential reading not just for planning students but also for those in many built environment and community disciplines, for practitioners in these fields including police and property development professionals, for politicians interested in this area of public concern and those who advise them.