Executive Summary

This publication reconstructs the history of why and how a set of European standards for Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning (CP-UDP) were made in the decade between 1995 and 2007. A standard (French: Norme, German: Norm) is defined by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) as “a technical document designed to be used as a rule, guideline or definition. It is a consensus-built, repeatable way of doing something.” The CEN standards in the 14383 series—and the umbrella standard CEN 14383-2 in particular—are based on ideas about the prevention of crime and fear of crime which have been put forward by people like Jane Jacobs (1961), C. Ray Jeffery (1971), Oscar Newman (1971), Tim Crowe (1991 & 2013) and theories like the Situational Approach, Routine Activity Approach and Opportunity theory. This new design-led and environmental approach to crime prevention has been connected with a managerial approach according to the international standards on quality management (ISO 9000 series). In this way the umbrella standard CEN/TR 14383-2 aims to combine questions of “contents” and “process”, and:

• Helps to develop “strategies and measures which may be implemented to prevent and reduce crime problems in a given environment”
• Gives advice on “how to follow an effective and efficient procedure in which stakeholders should choose the strategies and measures most effective and feasible to prevent and reduce the crime problems as defined by the stakeholders.”
  

The standard proposes a strategic assessment of a specific area (“where?”), different kinds of safety and security problems (“what?”), and different stakeholders who can or should be involved in the management of insecurity (“who?”). After this trio of basic preliminary questions the standard gives general guidelines according to different stages and tasks in the overall urban planning process: urban planning, urban design and urban management. The standard is not limited to practical recommendations for urban planning and design, but also gives advice on how to implement these guidelines. A considerable part of the standard is dedicated to the “process to prevent and reduce crime and fear of crime by urban planning and management”. A step-by-step process is set out, from conducting a crime assessment at the onset to a final outcome-evaluation of the particular crime prevention activity. In several annexes as well as in the accompanying manual ‘Safepolis’ which was published a few years later (Labqus, Politecnico di Milano, 2008) the ideas on crime prevention by urban design and planning (CP-UDP) were explained.

Though this standard was considered as “the only Crime Prevention Standard in Europe since the Roman Empire”, and the process part of the standard was outlining an almost universally applicable7-steps model for the supervision of a design and planning process from the CP-UDP point of views,the dissemination of the standard has thus far been a very weak point. The standard is available fromevery national standardisation institute in every country in Europe (in the world actually) but the price is high and no promotion and marketing is done. The authors conclude with three recommendations:

• Work on a better dissemination
• Update the process model using modern standards on sustainability, system engineering and risk management
• Develop the conglomerate of CP-UDP ideas, practices and theories into one real generic theory.

_________________

Authors of this booklet are Bo Grönlund, Harm Jan Korthals Altes, Paul van Soomeren and Günter Stummvoll. The study was edited by Caroline L. Davey and Andrew B. Wootton. Additional research and compilation was undertaken by: Melissa Marselle and Ares Kalandides.

Download booklet as .pdf

It all began on a stormy and rainy London day in October 1996. A small group of people from Denmark, the UK and The Netherlands gathered at the British Standardisation Institute (BSI). Despite the weather, they were in a very enthusiastic and sunny mood. I was one of them and we had just decided to make an official European standard on Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning (CP-UDP). A document of about 20 pages on which all European countries would reach a consensus. A text on how to prevent crimes like burglary, vandalism, robbery and theft as well as how to prevent fear of crime and feelings of urban insecurity. Not using the old fashioned reactive approach of more police and harder sentencing. Nor by implementing hard-boiled security: barbed wire, locks and bolts, or opening another box of cameras. No, a text on how people who are planning, designing and maintaining a city could tackle and prevent crime and feelings of insecurity.

As a chair of this (then, still small) working group, I pushed for two very simple but vital decisions:

• Let’s have meetings in countries which are not yet on board, to try and get them to participate;
• Let’s have two-day meetings, but let’s always spend half a day in a crime-ridden neighbourhood to learn a common language of examples.

Between 1996 and 2001, several countries joined the process one after another: France, Sweden and Austria (1997); Italy, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland (1998); Estonia (2000). And indeed we learned that common language by looking at the concrete examples of what worked, what did not work and what went horribly wrong.

In 2003, the CEN standard on CP-UDP was ready and accepted by a formal vote for the whole of Europe. Magnificent work by the French and Italians made the standard even better. In the rather bureaucratic language and numbering of the European standardisation Committee (CEN) they issued the standard CEN/TR 14383-2. More enthusiastically, someone later christened it “the only Crime Prevention Standard in Europe since the Roman Empire.”

An implementation manual — Safepolis (2008) — was later created, to make the work easier. Standard and manual proved to be a sound basis for local authorities, politicians, groups of residents and business organisations that wanted to live and work in, as the European Urban Charter puts it, “a secure and safe town free, as far as possible, from crime, delinquency and aggression”. From that moment on they could all simply say: “Yes, I know safety, security, crime and crime prevention are all very difficult concepts. But when you as a planner, architect, policeman, resident or teacher follow this CEN/TR 14383-2 as a guideline, it will make this city a lot safer”.

But now, some 18 years after that rainy London day, we might ask ourselves some difficult questions. Is the standard we created really used? Is it a success? Is a review, update or even broader innovation necessary? So, digging back into history of this standard, this is what we have discovered: Review of CEN 14383.

Note: You can download more documents by going to the download centre.

________

*Paul van Soomeren (pvansoomeren@DSP-groep.nl)