Cars & Crime

2026 Cars & Crime Symposium

The call for abstracts to participate in the second Cars & Crime Symposium is now open until 17th April 2026.

In defence of walkability as a crime prevention strategy

(under review at The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice)

New Urbanist ideas promoting walkability have many purported economic, social, public health and environmental benefits. But they have been criticised by proponents of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED), who have blamed street connectivity for facilitating target recognition; providing offenders with access and escape routes, and weakening informal surveillance by making it harder to distinguish locals from non-locals. This view has been corroborated by more recent evidence that has consistently found a positive association between different indexes of walkability and street crime. In this paper, we challenge the consensus portraying walkable neighbourhoods as criminogenic by highlighting two key issues – one methodological, the other substantive - that have been overlooked by CPTED and environmental criminology more broadly. First, the focus on crime counts which confounds crime risk with the number of human interactions in the physical world. Second, the recurring neglect of how walkable neighbourhoods reduce crime beyond their borders, something that becomes clear once motoring offences – the most common form of street crime – are brought within the analytic frame. Once we do this, we argue, it is apparent that - by indirectly promoting car dependency – crime prevention programmes such as Secured by Design inadvertently promote criminal harm. Finally, we explore the points of intersection between CPTED and walkability. Neighbourhoods can be made simultaneously more vibrant, sustainable and safe by reducing road - not street – connectivity, as proposed by urban regeneration strategies such as low traffic neighbourhoods.

Pina-Sánchez, J., and Loader, I. (2026). In defence of walkability as a crime prevention strategy. https://doi.org/10.21428/cb6ab371.a215d609

Exploring the effect of motor traffic on street crime

(under review at Kriminologie)

Traffic impacts street safety in multiple, often under-recognised ways. In addition to their polluting effect and the obvious risk they pose to pedestrians, we hypothesise that heavy motor traffic may also be associated with increased street-level crime. We elaborate this argument drawing from a wide range of well established crime theories. We explore our proposition using longitudinal data from Understanding Crime, and two-way fixed effects models. We find that perceptions of crime are higher in neighbourhoods affected by heavy motor traffic. More importantly, we find that these two phenomena are associated across time, suggesting a likely causal effect. Lastly, we note that the causal effect of motor traffic on street crime is likely mediated by collective efficacy; i.e. traffic erodes community ties, which in turn make informal surveillance less effective.

Pina-Sánchez, J., and Davies, T. (2025). Exploring the effect of motor traffic on street crime. Crimrxiv. https://doi.org/10.21428/cb6ab371.e6bdd2db