Design Out Crime

How can design cut out crime from systems and products?

The Design Council is part of the Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime which is leading a programme of work to develop innovative design solutions to help prevent robbery, to crime-proof hot new gadgets and to embed public safety in the design of new public spaces.

What Design Out Crime is doing this month

Mobile Phone Security Challenge antSome of the UK’s top designers and technology experts have been announced as winners in the £400,000 Mobile Phone Security Challenge, a national competition to create ‘crime proof’ mobile phones.

There are four winning teams, each made up of a design and a technology company.

They are:

  • Proxama with Minima Design
  • Therefore Product Design with Imagination Technologies Limited
  • Rodd Design with TTP (The Technology Partnership) 
  • Data Transfer Communications and PDD Group Limited with You Get It Back.

The winning teams were selected on the strengths of their credentials and will now start developing new ways of securing mobile phone handsets, the data they contain, and their future use as electronic ‘wallets’ when m-commerce (mobile-commerce) technology is introduced in the UK. The designers and technologists will collaborate to develop innovative ideas and concepts and create prototype solutions which will be showcased in 2010 and take part in a national exhibition in 2011.

Find out more about results of the Mobile Phone Security Challenge.


Over the next three years, the UK’s top designers will bring together industry, the public sector, designers and crime prevention experts with victims of crime, particularly young people. New design-led ideas will be prototyped and exhibited which address five areas where design can help to prevent crime, including:

'Hot' products

Developing innovations in technology, services and product design can help make personal electronics like mobile phones, MP3 players and laptops more crime-proof. Read in more depth

A sticker advertising ImmobiliseServices like Immobilise have been designed to help people register their valuables and maybe see them returned if stolen. Products like number plates can be made more secure by using innovative materials and manufacturing techniques. Mobile phones could be secured if biometrics are designed-in.

Find out more about this programme of work which is led by Joe McGeehan, Director of the Centre for Communications Research at Bristol University.

Schools

Design solutions that reduce problems such as bullying, fighting and petty theft in schools are already being developed. Read more

Villiers High School new playgroundFor instance, the problem of projectors being stolen from classrooms can be helped by making them orange so they can be easily identified as stolen if re-sold. And teenagers at Villiers High School collaborated with a designer when they won £25,000 to rebuild their playground when fights and aggression there started to escalate.

Led by Sir John Sorrell, Chair of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and the Sorrell Foundation, designers are looking to find more design ideas that tackle crime in schools.

Housing

Embedding design-led crime reducing approaches in the planning and construction of housing can work to make new builds secure from the start or to make existing dwellings more safe with intelligent refurbishment.

Britannia Mills development by Urban SplashDeveloper Urban Splash has taken a design approach to securing its redevelopment of unused buildings like '60s flats, industrial buildings and terraced houses.

This programme of work is led by Ken Pease, forensic psychologist and visiting professor at University College London.

 

Alcohol-related crime

Finding design-led approaches to reduce the harm caused by alcohol-related antisocial and criminal behaviour, especially assaults in pubs and clubs can deliver results that stop violence and save lives.

Alphabar glasses are made from a material that shatters but does not break into dangerous shardsFor instance, Max Perez, founder of AlphaBar worked with designers and materials experts to create a toughened drinking glass that reduces the impact of glassings in pubs and bars but still looks and feels like a premium glass.

Jeremy Myerson, Professor of Design Studies at the Royal College of Art leads this programme. 

Business crime

We'll help businesses to use design to minimise the crimes which victimise them, their customers or employees – such as shoplifting and other forms of retail theft.

Bike hire schemes can be made more secure with designThis is a modern way to tackle modern problems and businesses like bike hire schemes, car parks and even hospitals have all seen the benefits.

Lorraine Gamman, Professor of Design Studies at Central St Martins leads this programme of research and development.

The Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime aims to:

  • Generate positive design solutions to specific crime and disorder problems, based on an understanding of the methods used by offenders
  • Advise on strategies for the wider implementation of these solutions
  • Inspire designers to produce positive design solutions (through commissions, awards and publicity)
  • Identify potential threats, solutions and opportunities presented by new technologies
  • Raise consumer awareness and increase demand for secure and attractive products
  • Demonstrate the business case for designing out crime by showing that it increases sales by adding value
  • Raise the profile of Design Out Crime within industry, placing it at the core of corporate social responsibility.

More inspiration

We've compiled a set of Designing Out Crime Case Studies to inspire designers, businesses and manufacturers. They show how crime has successfully been designed out of products, services and buildings for businesses, the public sector and for the public.

They provide some useful insights, tried and tested tools and processes and will hopefully spark some creative crime stopping ideas for others to try.

 

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