Neighborhood Design and Crime A Test of Two Perspectives

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Abstract
Over the past two decades, two perspectives have emerged on the effect of the physical design of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods on crime—the defensible space approach and the opportunity approach. The purpose of this paper is to assess the validity of the two perspectives. The study examined differences in physical characteristics and various dimensions of informal social control within and among three pairs of neighborhoods matched on racial composition and economic status but with distinctly different crime levels. The study results lend far more support to the opportunity model of crime in residential areas than to the defensible space model. Physical characteristics distinguished between high-and low-crime neighborhoods to a much greater extent than did differences in informal social control. Since informal social control is the intervening concept through which the effect of physical design on crime is transmitted, according to the defensible space model, the results fail to support that model. The study results have a number of implications for neighborhood planning.

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