Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

If you ask most people about preventing crime, they probably think of police, security guards, alarms, huge locks, and so on. But there are other simpler, less intrusive, and less expensive ways to prevent crime. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED - "sep-ted") is one such tool. It concerns the use and design of space inside and outside of buildings, the positioning of buildings in relation to one another and the street, lighting, entrances and exits, and landscaping.

CPTED is based on two main assumptions... Offenders commit crime when there are not many people around, where they are unlikely to be seen, and where they can easily and quickly get in and out. Crime is related to daily routines and activities in the area, such flow of traffic and pedestrians (or lack of flow) on nights and weekends.

Click for our CPTED resource list.

Convenience stores have used CPTED successfully for a long time. Click here for more information about what works.

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