摘要：Sarasota, Fla, used Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles to guide revitalization efforts in its crime-ridden North Trail area. A team of city planners, police officers, and architects examined land use and crime data and sought input from local businesses, residents, and community leaders. Beginning in 1990, interventions included increased police patrols to reduce prostitution and the creation of a new zoning district to encourage area redevelopment based on CPTED principles. Compared with the rest of Sarasota, from 1990 to 1998 the North Trail Corridor experienced decreases in calls for police service (P < .005), crimes against persons and property (P = not significant), and prostitution (P < .05). These results suggest that community design may be a useful tool for decreasing crime and improving community health. CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES has significant impacts on the health of the public. While most responsibility for addressing crime has been given to the police and the criminal justice system, the public health community has become interested in crime prevention as a means of preventing the physical injuries and mental distress experienced by crime victims. 1 Reducing crime through better design of the physical environment is an approach that holds promise. 2 Known as Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), its key principles include facilitating the visibility of people’s activities (“eyes on the street”), natural access control to manage ingress and egress, territorial reinforcement to distinguish public and private spaces, and ongoing maintenance to sustain the other principles. 3– 6 In 1990, the City of Sarasota, Fla, sought to incorporate CPTED strategies to revitalize its North Trail area, where aging buildings, restrictive zoning codes, and the presence of prostitutes along the major thoroughfare (US 41) discouraged economic investment and lowered the quality of life. The focus of the study was US 41, referred to as the North Trail Corridor.
