A Cpted Based Approach to Investigate Perceived Security in Urban Parks of Tiruchirappalli India

Abstract

Urban Green Spaces (UGSs), specifically urban parks, provide numerous direct and newlineindirect benefits to human health and well-being. On the other hand, the physical newlineenvironmental features of urban parks can induce fear of crime among its users that can newlinerestrict their social life, eventually affecting their mental health. Having said that, fear newlineof crime in UGSs is mostly investigated in the western context. Since the perception of newlinesafety, application of research findings, and respective design recommendations vary newlineconcerning the geographical context, it is essential to conduct more fear of crime studies newlinein different parts of the world and compare them to comprehensively understand the newlinecumulative effect on fear of crime in UGSs. Past studies highlight the importance of newlineexamining fear of crime in a greater range of racial/ethnic compositions and economic newlineconditions. With India offering variety in every aspect of social life and a limited newlinenumber of fear of crime studies on UGSs, there is a need to study fear of crime in urban newlineparks of India. The relationship between fear of crime and physical environmental newlinefeatures and crime levels is theorized as Crime Prevention Through Environmental newlineDesign (CPTED). Limited research exists based on parks that adopted CPTED newlineprinciples, but only as an inventory tool to inspect safety. In addition, these studies did newlinenot consider the multiple physical environmental variables that can affect safety. newlineMoreover, there is a possibility that the surrounding influences from outside a project newlineboundary can compromise the overall evaluation strength if not accounted for in the newlineCPTED project. Additionally, there is a need to consider users perceptions of CPTED newlinestrategies. Studies on fear of crime in urban parks have used virtual or real environments newlineas stimuli to collect the perception of potential or actual users, respectively, with each newlinemethod having its own advantages and disadvantages. In addition to this, there is a lack newlineof evidence to support the nature of differences that can exist in fear