What Is Defensible Space?

Defense space is used to stop crime. Defensive space refers to areas such as neighborhoods, houses, parks, or offices, which means ownership and easy and frequent supervision. The above characteristics clarify the household's right to control private and community property and ultimately prevent crime. Defense space has three key characteristics: leadership, regulation, and symbolic obstacles. A space with a logo of ownership, regulatory opportunities, a clear indication of activity and ownership.

Some American criminologists design crime prevention strategies for American society. They believe that the environment of many communities offers opportunities for crime. The street lighting is too poor, too rude, doors and windows are easy to access, and buses and underground railway stations provide hidden places for criminals. To this end, the United States Federal Government in 1969 organized some experts to study the relationship between the design of environmental devices and the fear of citizens and their vulnerability to crime. Preliminary observations of certain design characteristics of public buildings can affect the victimization rate of residents and their sense of security. This research work draws the hypothesis that proper building design can not only be used to deter crime, but also encourage citizens to protect their streets and personal property. Based on this, they proposed that the natural environment should be changed to create a safer and more defensive space for residents, that is, a defensive space strategy. This defense strategy includes three environmental design strategies that can be used to reduce the chance of crime: (1) access control, including setting up a fence barrier to prevent unauthorized people (potential offenders) from entering a building or area. Guarding doorways, adding door locks, and adding window bars are also common access control strategies. (2) Establish a monitoring point. The basic purpose of the monitoring design structure is to put intruders and potential offenders under observation to prevent the occurrence of criminal acts. (3) Increasing informal social control of community residents is one of the most effective deterrents to crime prevention. This kind of control requires the active participation of community residents, and the environmental layout also helps. For example, the natural environment can inspire residents' love of the community and enhance their sense of security because they are more beautiful and comfortable, thereby inspiring residents to maintain and control their residences, streets, parks, public facilities and residential buildings, etc. ^]

There are many contents of crime prevention in space, and they can be divided into:

Crime prevention through city planning and building modeling. Residential projects with high crime incidence are usually large buildings that can be used by more than a thousand families. In these buildings, collective consciousness and informal social supervision are weak, and the aisles, stairwells, elevators, and corridors of these buildings are open, and anyone can flow freely, and there are many in them that are difficult to isolate. At a glance, crime prevention for these buildings can be taken: (1) Delineation of named, private, semi-private and semi-public areas in the building is a key factor in the plan, and no one will be there from the block Public spaces in question, after entering barriers to semi-public and semi-private venues, explain why they are there. (2) All residents can identify neighbors and intruders by zoning the building and parts of the building. When criminals know in the building that they can be easily identified, they do not commit crimes. (3) Set the buffer. Symbolically circled by shrubs, bushes, hedges, pier, low steps, paving tiles at the entrance that are different from street sidewalks. (4) Install television monitoring equipment in railway stations, airports, parking lots, subways, and supermarkets.

Crime prevention through environmental planning. (1) Single elderly people, lonely elderly people, or elderly couples can live in high-rise buildings and strengthen informal social control and supervision if they do not live with their children. (2) Families with many children and low incomes are better off living in single-family or multi-family houses, because they are security forces themselves, or inserted into the middle class collective to strengthen more security. (3) High-income families can hire doormen and install various monitoring facilities. ^[2]