ABSTRACT
Premises liability cases may offer insights into the application of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). It is apparent that judges and juries can appreciate the logic of CPTED and decide in specific cases that the way properties are designed can influence criminal behavior. Design is usually not a singular cause of a criminal act. Invariably, several factors contributed to the crime: not having a security plan, not being aware of what is happening on the property, not having enough security officers, or not having security officers who are properly recruited and trained. The crime was driven by a variety of factors, design being just one of them. When testifying as an expert witness, more and more security professionals are basing their testimony not only on best practices in the industry and traditional security countermeasures, but on CPTED concepts and strategies as well.
