The Expanding Role of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design in Premises Liability

This Research in Brief discusses the historical evolution of the legal basis for premises liability cases and their connection to Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Victims of crime are seeking compensation from the owners and managers of properties on which crime takes place with increasing frequency. In these court cases, commonly known as premises liability cases, juries are being told that the crime was the result of a perpetrator's ability to take advantage of a lack of security in a certain building or property. To find for the plaintiff in premises liability cases, the jury must implicitly agree that the setting in which the crime took place was critical and that had the property been designed or laid out differently and adequately guarded, the criminal would likely have been deterred or prevented from attacking.