Study of crime within the built environment - a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

This research explores the academic literature to understand how the criminogenic properties in micro places of various urban elements, such as the configuration of the street network, parks, bus stops and schools have been found to influence crime through a systematic review and a statistical meta-analysis.  The meta-analysis provided a baseline of the quantified criminogenic effect of urban elements found in the street environment, the purpose of which was to anticipate the impact of changes. It was found that despite differences in studies, urban elements in the built environment shape the spatial and temporal distribution of urban crime in a consistent manner. While the findings from this chapter need to be treated with caution, due to the low number of data points and studies included for some of the analyses, they highlight how the design of urban environments can influence patterns of crime. As a standalone exploratory study, this article contributes to academic literature to present the state of the art regarding the effects of traditional physical urban elements on crime.