Design Council as part of the Design and Technology Alliance
Crime has fallen over the last decade but new crime challenges have emerged as society, and technology, have evolved. Changing behaviour is of course one aspect of crime reduction, but design has an important role to play in preventing crimes and reducing criminal activity.
The challenge for design is to how to create products, services and environments that address the needs of users - and abusers. In other words, designers need to become more creative than criminals.
In more depth
Case Studies from those who've done it. Designers of these
products, services and environments have factored security into their work and made it visually pleasing as well as crime-proof
We’re co-ordinating a £1.6millon programme that will use design to develop new solutions to a wide range of crime-related problems, particularly those which affect young people.
Over the next three years the Home Secretary’s Design and Technology Alliance will bring industry, the public sector, designers and crime prevention experts together with victims of crime to prototype new design-led ideas for crimeproof gadgets, public spaces and housing.
The programme will work with industry experts to tackle five areas where design can help to prevent crime:
Schools
Finding and applying specific design solutions to reduce problems such as bullying, fighting and petty theft in schools
Led by: Sir John Sorrell, Chair of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and the Sorrell Foundation.
'Hot' products
Developing innovations in technology, services and product design which help make personal electronics more crime-proof.
Led by: Joe McGeehan, Director of the Centre for Communications Research at Bristol University.
Housing
Embedding design-led crime reducing approaches in the planning and construction of housing.
Led by: Ken Pease, forensic psychologist and visiting professor at University College London.
Alcohol-related crime
Finding design-led approaches to reduce the harm caused by alcohol-related antisocial and criminal behaviour, especially assaults in pubs and clubs.
Led by: Jeremy Myerson, Professor of Design Studies at the Royal College of Art.
Business crime
Helping businesses to use design to minimise the crimes which victimise them, their customers or employees – such as shoplifting and other forms of retail theft.
Led by: Lorraine Gamman, Professor of Design Studies at Central St Martins.
In 2002, we launched a research project exploring the use of design best practice to reduce crime, which was carried out for the Design Council by Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Salford and the Judge Institute of Management Studies which led to our policy paper Cracking Crime Through Design.
Our publication Think Thief builds the business case for design against crime. It reveals ways in which the design of products, services and environments can be made more resistant to theft and criminal damage without reducing their allure, marketability or user-friendliness.
Evidence, our collection of case studies, features commercial and public projects that have effectively designed out crime. In it you can find out how a new type of drinking glass cut violent attacks, how the clothes of tomorrow could save your life and how an innovative design team made bus users feel safer.
We've also been involved in putting together a teaching package exploring design issues related to the theft of personal products, which has been developed by Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. You can learn more about their practice-led research at www.designagainstcrime.com.
We want to hear your views on design and crime. You can add your comments – and read others’ views – on our Perspectives page.
