First Advisor

Don C. Gibbons

Term of Graduation

Summer 1991

Date of Publication

Summer 6-18-1991

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Urban Studies

Department

Urban Studies

Language

English

Subjects

Crime -- France -- Marseille, Public housing -- France -- Marseille, Crime prevention and architectural design, Public housing, France -- Marseille

Physical Description

1 online resource (4, ix, 169 pages)

Abstract

There are myriad approaches to control crime that are currently being advocated by one group or another in contemporary American society. These range from punitive programs of incarceration to global kinds of social intervention to change societal "root causes" of crime. One of the proposals which attracted much attention in the 1960's was the crime control through environmental design perspective hinted at by persons such as Jane Jacobs and developed in detail by Oscar Newman. The idea of defensible space is straightforward: certain kinds of environmental design can have a significant deterrent effect on crime and criminals. The recent literature, however, suggests that it is perhaps the case that Newman overstated his case.

This study probed some fundamental questions concerning the relationships between the social composition of housing projects and particular design features of residences, and the behavior of residents with a view to determining those features which encourage persons to control the behavior in spaces around them in a manner which reduces crime, specifically predatory offenses. In addition, a major goal of this research was to uncover knowledge about various considerations additional to compositional and design ones which need to be taken into account in understanding predatory crime and its control, such as the criminal's viewpoint and how this may affect deterrability through design.

An exploratory, one-month research endeavor in Marseille, France yielded noteworthy findings concerning the relationship between crime, design and social composition. Marseille proved to be a highly suitable laboratory for examining the notion that crime can be reduced through environmental design since the residents of Marseille's public housing represented a much wider spectrum of social classes and the housing included a broader array of housing types and design approaches than do the predominantly lower income public housing projects in the U.S. As a result, the Marseille site allowed examination of the issue of the extent to which variations in social composition condition the influence of design features on crime reduction.

Rights

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43206

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