Urban Design Briefing Workshops A series of workshops were held as part of the conference and six of these are reported. There is a view that crime adds a certain frisson to the vigorous dynamics of urban living, but it would appear that most city-dwellers prefer to experience excitement in other ways that through risk of victimisation.
Crime is a rag-bag of different actions or inactions that have been defined as offensive.
The only common link between drunken brawls outside city centre pubs, shoplifting, drug dealing and graffiti-spraying is that they could all be defined as criminal. In the light of the above observations, it should be apparent that design guidelines for crime prevention will not offer the solution for creating safer cities. However, they can contribute to a solution, if they are reconciled with a range of management, economic and social improvements. For example town centre areas which have become blighted by occurrences of vandalism, theft and predatory crime may need to be revitalised by improved supervision, new facilities or accommodation to attract citizens back into the area, as well as good urban design that avoids vulnerable locations or predatory opportunities. You cannot design out crime - the built environment is essentially a passive backdrop to human behaviour and social interactions.