Rising crime rates and the introduction of symbolic design

The theme of crime reduction is often cited as a reason for the increase in hostile architecture. Marcus

(1992) identifies how crime rates in New York City remained low from the 1930s until the 1950s, but this was followed by a steady rise from the 1960s until the 1980s (see figure 10). This rise in crime led to Dr C. Ray Jeffery introducing the idea of ‘Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design’ (1973), and Oscar Newman’s theory on Defensible space (1973). These theories gained traction in the 1980s after the NYPD identified 1980 as the “worst year of crime in city history” (New York Times, 1981). Newman and Jeffery used Jacobs’ ideas of natural surveillance as a basis for their investigations into how the built environment can increase social control. Newman, for example, reported that housing projects in New York City with defensible space characteristics, such as “the capacity of the physical environment to create perceived zones of territorial influence” (Newman, 1973, p. 332), suffered less criminal victimisation than those without. In a similar way to Nemeth and Schmidt (2007), Newman (1972, cited by Reynald, 2009) identifies how “zones of control are created through the use of barriers – both real and symbolic”.

With symbolic objects, a space can be ‘coded’ to convey a message of ‘territoriality’ to potential ‘undesirable’ users, which, in turn, prevents them from using the space. In the same way that a symbol is defined as “a sign, shape, or object that is used to represent something else” (Cambridge Dictionary), hostile architecture can be used to represent the site owners views of who can, and who cannot use the space. It could be argued that Newman identified a new direction in crime prevention; a direction which focuses more on objects and symbolism within a space, as opposed to overall good design and natural surveillance as initially described by Jacobs in 1961. Thus, it may be reasonable to suggest that the type of hostile architecture we see today is an evolved version of these initial ‘anti-crime’ strategies.

Crime rates per 100,000 residents

Number of Homeless people in New York City Year

Figure 10: A graph showing the street crime rates in New York City per 100,000 residents, from 1965 until 2019. Source: Disaster Center (2019)

Year