Safe Landscape: Evaluating Crime Prevention through Urban Morphology and Natural Surveillance Metrics
Urban morphological dynamics play a leading role in influencing the occurrence of criminal activities. The spatial configuration of public spaces can either amplify or mitigate the incidence of offenses in specific locations, as well as impact perceptions of insecurity and fear. Within the context of Brazilian cities, the rise in crime generates significant harm, affecting various sectors of society. Therefore, the objective is to evaluate urban landscape morphology and visual dynamics related to crime incidence in the central neighborhood of the municipality of São José dos Pinhais, Paraná, Brazil. Using a mixed-method approach, criminal data was geocoded through heat maps to identify urban spaces for analysis. The evaluation procedures, grounded solely in crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) and defensible space principles of natural surveillance, were developed to assess Google Street View images. The Delphi Technique was applied to establish the weighting of criteria related to visual permeability. Spatialization and critical assessment of results were followed. The study found that despite favorable morphological conditions for natural surveillance and visual permeability in the city center, crime rates remained high. Key contributions include developing an online methodology for urban analysis enabling fast and effective city diagnostics for researchers and urban planners, which was chosen over in loco pictures for temporal comparability, access to sensitive areas, and data quality consistency. Beyond, the prioritization of visual landscape criteria provides a singular element analysis that expands on environmental criminology research. These findings suggest that natural surveillance alone does not account for the elevated incidence of street thefts and robberies, highlighting the need for a holistic framework that considers socioeconomic, cultural, and spatial factors. It is recommended further methodological refinement beyond exploratory approaches, adaptations to specific Brazilian and Global South contexts, and a broader inclusion of relevant variables.
