CPTED Measures in a Gated Residential Area

Abstract

The observation approach is often used as a measurement tool for examining the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) elements in residential areas. However, this method of evaluation, which is merely based on observations are seen to be inadequate. This is due to the fact that CPTED is closely tied to community-based relationships, which is not easily measured through short period observations. This study reports the findings of a pilot study which evalutes CPTED measures based on face-to-face questionnaire survey. The study was conducted in a gated residential areas located at Bukit Jambul in Penang, Malaysia. The results found that the measures of CPTED using Cronbach Alpha (α) index for all components of CPTED were 0.6 and above suggesting that the measures are reliable and valid. The study revealed that CPTED is correlated to Sense of Community but not to Fear of Crime. Keywords: CPTED, crime, fear of crime, sense of community, gated residential area. eISSN 2514-751X © 2017 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.