The Impact of Surveillance on Levels of Crime and Fear of Crime

Abstract

This chapter reviews the research evidence regarding the impact of surveillance on levels of crime and makes design suggestions to improve residential developments. Surveillance refers to the way that an area is designed to maximise the ability of formal (security guards, police, employees) or informal (residents, passers-by, shoppers) users of the space to observe suspicious behaviour. Within situational crime prevention more generally, surveillance may include the installation of CCTV or the use of formal security guards — these interventions are often referred to as formal or mechanical surveillance. However, within the field of designing out crime, surveillance rarely relates to formal measures, but refers more to the informal or natural surveillance created through measures such as ensuring that houses are overlooked by neighbouring properties, that dwelling entrances face the street, that rooms facing the street are active (such as the kitchen or living room) and that sightlines are not obstructed by shrubbery or high walls. Much of the evidence relating to surveillance as a crime reduction measure focuses upon formal or mechanical surveillance — in particular CCTV, the employment of security guards and measures such as street lighting, to enhance their performance. As the focus of this book is residential design, and the ways in which the environment can be planned to reduce crime risks, this chapter will focus solely upon informal surveillance — that which takes place between users of the space, by the residents, those working in the area or those simply passing by.