Paul, Patricia and Jeffery Brantingham (Credit: Simon Fraser University)

Is there a reason why certain areas of town have reputations for being “sketchy,” “dangerous,” or full of crime? What impact does an urban area’s design and layout have on promoting criminal activity?

One Simon Fraser University husband and wife research team–Paul and Patricia Brantingham–have been working to analyze urban crime patterns and find solutions and recommendations for how to make things better. Specifically, they study the impact of factors such as the placement of certain buildings, transit systems and roads as well as hours of shopping centres on the frequency and severity of crime in an area.

The criminologists, who founded SFU’s Institute of Canadian Urban Research Studies (ICURS) in the early 1990s, have recently been given a monetary show of support for their work in the form of a RCMP supported $4-million, five-year renewal of their research chairs to . . . → Read More: SFU Researchers Fight Crime with Urban Design