An Assessment of CPTED Principles in Relation to Bullying Behaviour

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary study examining the potential influences of building design on bullying behavior and experiences, of a sample of Malaysia secondary school students. Bullying in school may be an early stage of the developmental sequence that serves as a strong predictor of delinquency and future crime. Through the discussion of findings in previous studies, environmental design approach is as one of the methods to bring down the level of crime in school. Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is an approach that uses environmental design as a tool to reduce crime from both the physical and the psychological aspects. The features of physical environment such as street layout, building design, lighting and physical decay can affect the occurrence and behaviour of criminals. The shortcomings in the physical environment could open up the opportunity for offenders. Thus, this study seeks to determine if there is a possibility that the actual physical environment in which students spend greater part of their day can affect behaviour, which in turn, can lead to violence in school. A survey was conducted at four secondary schools in Shah Alam, Selangor with a random sample of 406 students from Form 1, Form 2 and Form 3 involving the observation of 32 school blocks. Three principles of Crime CPTED were analyzed in the school environment. The results indicated that there is a significant difference in territoriality and school maintenance which results in the forming of the negative environment in the schools. It was found that this, in turn, affects the frequency of bullying occurring among the students in school.