Crime prevention isn’t only about people — it’s also about places. The way streets, parks, housing, and public spaces are designed can either invite safety or create risks. Lighting, design, and the built environment are critical (but often overlooked) tools for building safer communities.
How Design Prevents Crime
Lighting: Well-lit streets, alleys, and transit stops reduce fear and opportunity for crime.
Visibility: Open sightlines and fewer “blind corners” discourage hidden activity.
Natural surveillance: Homes, shops, and gathering spaces overlooking streets increase informal community watch.
Maintenance: Clean, well-kept spaces counter the “broken windows” effect and signal care.
Access control: Design that guides flow without fencing communities in.
Canadian Context
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED): Widely used framework in cities like Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto.
Transit safety audits: Community groups walking transit stations to identify unsafe features.
Housing retrofits: Some public housing projects adding better lighting, green space, and gathering spots.
Urban planning debates: Balancing density, green design, and safety priorities.
The Challenges
Equity issues: Over-policing can emerge when “design for safety” is really design for exclusion.
Funding gaps: Infrastructure upgrades cost far more than social programs.
One-size-fits-all: What feels “safe” to some (bright lights, surveillance cameras) can feel hostile to others.
Maintenance neglect: Improvements fade without long-term care and investment.
The Opportunities
Co-design with residents: Involve communities in identifying unsafe spaces and redesigning them.
Integration with climate goals: Safer designs can also be greener (e.g., solar streetlights).
Cross-sector wins: Urban planning, housing, and policing collaborating instead of working in silos.
Scaling successful pilots: Expand proven projects like neighbourhood lighting retrofits.
The Bigger Picture
Safety isn’t just about who’s in the streets, but how those streets are built. By shaping environments that are open, cared for, and well-lit, communities can reduce risks while fostering pride and connection.
The Question
If we know the built environment is one of the strongest predictors of safety, then why do we still treat it as an afterthought? Which leaves us to ask: how can Canada make design and infrastructure core pillars of crime prevention, not just “add-ons”?
Lighting, Design, and the Built Environment as Crime Prevention
The Space Around Us Shapes Safety
Crime prevention isn’t only about people — it’s also about places. The way streets, parks, housing, and public spaces are designed can either invite safety or create risks. Lighting, design, and the built environment are critical (but often overlooked) tools for building safer communities.
How Design Prevents Crime
Canadian Context
The Challenges
The Opportunities
The Bigger Picture
Safety isn’t just about who’s in the streets, but how those streets are built. By shaping environments that are open, cared for, and well-lit, communities can reduce risks while fostering pride and connection.
The Question
If we know the built environment is one of the strongest predictors of safety, then why do we still treat it as an afterthought? Which leaves us to ask:
how can Canada make design and infrastructure core pillars of crime prevention, not just “add-ons”?