Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is an approach to safety by which the physical environment is changed in and around schools to both promote safety and reduce opportunities for crime. In this video, Christine Koffkey, MPH, discusses the benefits of CPTED, the six components that make it up, and key findings from school principals who implement CPTED strategies.
Christine Koffkey, MPH, is a Research Assistant at the University of Michigan – Flint.
Justin Heinze, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and serves as Co-Director of the National Center for School Safety.
Transcript
Dr. Justin Heinze: At the National Center for School Safety, we serve as the BJA STOP School Violence National TTA Provider and work with schools and stakeholders around the country to implement evidence-based strategies and other best practices to help make schools safer. In this video, we discuss the implementation of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED, as a method to change the physical environments in and around schools to promote safety. CPTED interventions are designed around key principles – such as natural surveillance, target hardening, and image management – that reduce opportunities that exist for crime, increase risks associated with crime and reduce vulnerability of potential victims to crime. Even though CPTED got its start in the 1970s, the principles are less frequently applied in school contexts. We talked to 10 school principals following a CPTED review by a trained professional to find out how they use the information.
Christine Koffkey: My name is Christine Koffkey. I have a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Michigan-Flint and joined the PRC at the Flint satellite office in 2019. I came on to the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative project as a research assistant helping to develop an implementation guide.
CPTED offers a unique approach to school safety which can be applied to schools in a variety of ways, offering flexibility to meet the needs of each school. So we wanted more information about the implementation process and how administrators use their assessment report to implement those environmental changes in their school.
CPTED explores different ways to create a safe school by designing an environment to prevent crime. There are six components in CPTED: surveillance (natural, formal, and mechanical), territoriality, image management, access control, activity support, and target hardening. This research explores what principals did with the CPTED report from their school’s assessment which outlined recommendations for each of these six categories and the process principals used to determine ways to improve their school’s environment for safety.
Some of the key findings from our research included that administrators recommended including as many stakeholders in the process as possible. A school resource officer is really helpful to the CPTED process in providing an outside law enforcement perspective on safety. One administrator stated that “our school would not have benefited the same way if the SRO was not involved.” Another key finding was that administrators were able to quickly implement low and no cost recommendations from the report.
More research is needed to determine the effectiveness of CPTED in reducing violence in schools. Additionally, research should be looked into the feasibility of recommendations and the likelihood of schools to complete all those recommendations. This study included recommendations that were intentionally low cost to give schools more feasible options.
There’s not a lot of research currently available about the use of CPTED in schools. However, there are some useful guides for school administrators seeking to implement CPTED. The CDC offers some guidance and resources for schools interested in using the CPTED to prevent school violence on their website. More information about CPTED including CPTED training and certification can be found at the CPTED website.
Dr. Heinze: As the results from this study show, school principals valued identifying areas in and around their buildings that could improve safety with even small alterations. CPTED as a strategy, can be combined with other safety programming to think about violence prevention holistically. Having a conversation with your building’s SRO or security specialist is an easy first step in utilizing a CPTED philosophy. But don’t stop there! Consider gathering input from students, staff and other stakeholders to help understand where and how your building’s physical environment can mitigate risk. Check out these additional resources or contact the National Center for School Safety to learn more.