City of Virginia Beach
Overview: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, CPTED, is based on the idea that the proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the incidence and fear of crime, and an improvement in the quality of life. In other words, if a site is laid out well, the likelihood of it being targeted for a crime may be reduced.
Crime Prevention is defined as the anticipation, recognition and appraisal of a crime risk and the initiation of some action to remove or reduce it. CPTED takes crime prevention one step further by studying the site design and working with the development community and public development agencies in an attempt to create safer designs in new and existing developments.
The following guidelines were prepared by the City of Virginia Beach’s CPTED Committee to be used as a tool for planners and design professionals to build a “Quality Physical Environment” with the idea of reducing opportunity for crime to occur.
It is the CPTED Committee’s desire to disseminate this information to design professionals and the development community so that these principles can be incorporated whenever possible in the design phase.
