ABSTRACT
In its broadest sense, technology is the application of tools to help solve practical problems. Crime prevention tools are, by definition, artificial devices that facilitate human defences against crime. In this chapter we describe crime prevention tools relative to environmental design and planning elements, with the acknowledgement that there are a multitude of crime prevention technologies and management innovations, such as those related to cybercrime, fraud and other ‘white-collar’ offences that are beyond our present discussion. Rather, we sample the stream of technological interventions devised over the ages to protect property and people from criminal predation, paying special attention to new technologies associated with place-based crime prevention. Even confining ourselves to this slice, we concede too that we cannot, in one chapter, identify all applicable tools and innovations, and that, given the pace of technological change, it is likely that at least some of the ones we discuss will be outdated relatively soon. What is salient, however, are the implications they have in relation to crime prevention theory and to resulting place-based crime prevention design processes and strategies. In the ultimate analysis, this seems to us to be among the most important considerations for the development of the field.
