A Successful CPTED Approach: The Dutch 'Police Label Secure Housing'

摘要

The Dutch Police Label Secure Housing (Politiekeurmerk Veilig Wonen®) is a Dutch standard for developing and building new estates. It began in 1989 and was triggered by the UK 'Secured by Design' (SBD) scheme. Taking a closer look at the English and the Dutch schemes, some striking differences are evident. Although the packaging of the two looks similar, the content of the Dutch Police Label Secure Housing is quite different. Using Christopher Alexander's pattern language, it focuses more on urban planning and landscaping, embodies the offenders' perspective to a larger extent and can be used more flexibly in dealing with site-specific problems and solutions. The objective of the scheme is to reduce crime (mainly burglary, car-related crime, theft, vandalism, nuisance) and fear of crime through environmental design, architectural measures and target hardening. Since 1998 the experiment has changed into a Dutch standard for developing and building new estates. The Dutch Police Label Secure Housing has reduced crime through the application of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles and by ensuring that the physical security of dwellings can stand up to criminal attack. The risk of dwellings being burgled has dropped significantly: by 95 per cent in new estates and 80 per cent in existing environments.