EUKN - United Kingdom - Decent parks? Decent behaviour? The link between the quality of parks and user behaviour

Decent parks? Decent behaviour? The link between the quality of parks and user behaviour

Introduction

The report argues that good design, management and maintenance are the main ingredients for safer parks, as opposed to heavy handed security measures. By arguing this, the authors pay tribute to the ‘broken windows’ theory, without being dogmatic. The report provides for a checklist of seventeen concrete ‘key elements’ of creating safe public parks. This checklist also applies to other kinds of public space. The research and resulting guidance is intended to help anyone who wishes to improve public spaces.

Description

The broken windows theory by Wilson and Kelling (1996) is based upon the following notion: “Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.”

A successful strategy for preventing vandalism is to fix the problems when they are small. Repair the broken windows within a short time and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage. The theory makes two major claims:

further petty crime and low-level anti-social behaviour will be deterred
major crime will be prevented

‘Decent parks? Decent behaviour?’ supports the broken window theory to a large extent. The report highlights evidence showing that when parks are allowed to fall into disrepair or their original design is corrupted, anti-social behaviour often increases. Conversely, when parks are redesigned or improved with the involvement of local people, crime usually diminishes.

However, the report stresses that design and maintenance cannot ever deal with the reasons why people offend in the first place. By acknowledging the importance of involving the local community and its focus on design, the report goes steps beyond the broken window theory.

Methodology

The research investigated 36 green space improvement programmes in England, Wales and Scotland together with the opinions of 20 local authorities and 75 green space community representatives.

Conclusions

The main conclusion of the report is that investing in the design and care of high quality public places is more effective in tackling anti-social behaviour than the blanket use of tough security measures such as closed circuit television (CCTV).
The authors do note, however, that carefully targeted security measures are often part of successful improvement projects.

Among the key elements, or recommendations, listed in the report, the following are of particular interest:

Take advantage of the potential for buildings within parks for natural surveillance, e.g. from cafés, flats and offices.
Involve the community early and through all stages of the improvement process.
Involve ‘problem’ groups as part of the solution where possible and work hard to avoid single-group dominance in the park.
Provide activities and facilities to ensure young people feel a sense of ownership. Address young people’s fear of crime as well as that of adults.
Reintroduce staff and gardeners, who provide a level of authority and a point of community interaction. Ensure they are provided with back-up.

Contact info

CABE Space
Phone: +44 20 7070 6700
enquiries@cabe.org.uk

Publication date

01/05/2005

Project finished

Researcher

CABE Space

Links

Visit the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) website

Download the report 'Decent parks? Decent behaviour?' (PDF, Eng, 1.2 MB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Security & crime prevention > Crime prevention

Keywords

Designing out crime