As I am currently in Rwanda at the time of writing (until Tuesday, July 24, 2018), and I pass through the streets of Kigali, it strikes me every time I return to the land of a thousand hills that the rate of infrastructure development is nothing short of phenomenal. In and around the banking district alone I spotted six new large-scale commercial developments that have begun construction within the past year. Likewise, the amount of residential development is equally as impressive with new detached homes and apartment blocks being created around the city and rural surroundings. Anybody who visits the country would have no choice other than to be impressed with the pace of progress as Rwanda moves toward 2020. However, I do wonder if those architects that are designing such fantastic buildings, and those policymakers that grant the developers planning approval are aware that they could potentially also help to reduce crime in Rwanda from its already impressively low levels still further through their design and approval work.
Of course, the Rwanda National Police do a wonderful job in crime detection and prevention, yet their workload could be reduced still further allowing more of a focus on serious crime if a national policy of ‘Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design’ (CPTED) were to be adopted by both central and devolved policymakers. In short, CPTED is a series of principles that architects and designers of the built environment can be asked to explicitly consider, which have been shown to reduce several types of opportunistic or predatory crimes to both people and property including assaults, muggings, robberies, rape, and vandalism. There can even be reductions in potentially less serious offenses such as littering and general harassment.
In short and to make the concept easily understandable, I will present an analogy that most people around the world would be able to identify with. If a young woman were to be returning home from work on a bus, and the bus broke down 2km from her home, would she always walk the shortest possible route home? Might she think that there are certain streets or locations she might avoid walking through? Might she either consciously or subconsciously know which is the safest route to walk? Some of the women I have spoken to about this type of question have replied ‘of course, I wouldn’t just walk down a long dark alley late at night, because I might be mugged or raped’, and so they would take a different route to reduce the chances of that happening. In other words, there are certain ways to walk or places to live that people would choose or not choose to go to or live in, because of nothing more than the built environment and the relative chances of being a victim of crime then being increased or decreased depending on how it has been designed either by choice, or more than likely through luck.
And so, in the context of CPTED, there are four key principles, that evidence has shown will have the effect on reducing levels of the crimes I have described. These are Natural Surveillance, Natural Access Control, Territorial Reinforcement, and Maintenance.
Natural Surveillance, not to be confused with CCTV and other methods of artificial surveillance, is about ensuring that all areas surrounding the building are naturally visible. So ensuring that if an alleyway or passage has to be included in the design (though best avoided in favour of a full street’s width), that both the entrance and exit are visible from the main street before the individual chooses to enter that alleyway. This ensures that any potential mugger cannot wait around a corner for somebody who has already begun walking through the alleyway. Also as part of natural surveillance, attempts should be made by developers and architects to ensure that as much natural lighting covers the whole building exterior as possible, and if not then provision for artificial lighting should be put in place. This then ensures that where alleyways must exist, that they are not dark, and it would again be difficult for any predatory offender to hide and wait for potential victims. A further aspect of natural surveillance is to ensure that the interior and exterior of the building design ensures that there are no external building walls that do not have windows and spaces occupied by workers or residents. So if a building is a square, there should be windows on all four sides with apartments or rooms that have clear visibility of the street outside or below. Again, evidence shows that a potential criminal would be much less likely to engage in criminal activity if there is a strong likelihood they would be seen by onlookers. Furthermore, ensuring that a work or residential car park is clearly visible from surrounding buildings in this manner will reduce the likelihood of vehicle thefts or break-ins.
Natural Access Control is about how people and vehicles access, pass through, go around, or pass by the building or environment in question. It would include designs for landscaping and walls around buildings, walkways and pathways, doors and gates, and how to ensure that the flows of those people and traffic can be most easily controlled naturally, including consideration for public entrances, natural and artificial lighting, avoiding any dead ends or pinch-points, and ensuring that it is clear to the general observer where they are meant to go. In designing building exterior and interiors this way, it is less likely that people or vehicles end up at locations where chances of becoming a victim of crime may increase.
Territorial Reinforcement is an important consideration, as this principle is about ensuring that it is clear who owns what part of the environment around them, and who has responsibility for it. Ensuring a real sense of influence and responsibility for those surroundings, and avoiding a lack of clarity of ownership will ensure that people take care of what they consider to be ‘theirs’, and stop spaces and areas falling into disrepair or appearing to be abandoned. Likewise, owners are more inclined to protect their property and put in place additional security measures to avoid crime taking place on their land and surrounding environment. A process should be put in place to ensure where there are any ‘dead’ areas, that ownership is established and responsibilities reiterated to the confirmed owner.
Finally, regarding Maintenance, it is important to realise that even if a newly designed building or development has taken account of the first three principles, ultimately the principles need to be revisited frequently to ensure that they are still being met. So if artificial lighting is used in hours of darkness, are all lights always in full working order? If there is signage in place, is the signage visible or might it need to be repainted after a year or two? If there is an incidence of graffiti or littering, then this should be removed quickly to avoid it becoming a habitual place for this, and if possible efforts taken to locate and punish any offenders or consider further extensions to the environmental design that could be updated to further minimise the risk of recurrence. Some of this maintenance type work may already be carried out unknowingly through Umuganda, and ensuring a public-private partnership in this regard as an extension of Umuganda will ensure that the living and working environment is protected and safe at all times.
In considering the four principles in this way, CPTED ensures that new developers are minimising the potential future effects of crime. Even for existing buildings, some aspects of the principles can be adopted as a problem-solving tool to reduce any potential crime in those areas.
As I discussed at the outset of this article, Rwanda is developing at an incredible rate, and it has the opportunity to become a world leader in showcasing how to reduce crime through considering how the built environment is designed and constructed. The only way to do this though is to ensure that all commercial and residential developers in Kigali and other towns and villages abide by the key CPTED principles described and provide a clear and explicit report of how their designs have taken CPTED into account alongside the physical building designs before any building consent can be granted. In adopting such a national CPTED policy, Rwandan society as a whole will benefit, with the only loser being the potential criminal.
The writer is a Programme Leader, Criminal Justice at the University of the West of Scotland.
Email: Allan.Moore@uws.ac.uk
Twitter: @AllanTMoore.
Copyright: Project Syndicate.