Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a strategy that uses the built environment to reduce opportunities for crime and enhance safety. It involves designing or modifying physical spaces—like improving lighting, maintaining clear sightlines, controlling access, and encouraging natural surveillance—so that it becomes difficult for criminals to operate unnoticed. By making areas less inviting for crime and more welcoming for residents and users, CPTED helps create safer communities. It’s based on understanding how environmental factors influence behavior and aims to deter criminal activity through thoughtful, intentional design.