ABSTRACT
Oscar Newman, an architect and city planner, developed the Defensible Space Theory in the early 1970s to encompass ideas about crime prevention and neighborhood safety. Newman's focus was on social control, crime prevention, and public health in relation to community design. When larger groups use a community space, no one has control over the area, and an agreement over its acceptable uses is often in dispute. Newman's intent in creating the theory of defensible space is to give the residents of a community control of public spaces that they formerly felt were out of reach. In effect, residents care enough for their entire area to protect it from crime as they would protect their own private property. The defensible space theory can be applied to any type of planned space, and the key is the development of a communal area in which residents can "extend the realm of their homes and the zone of felt responsibility."
