A review of the impact of crime risk assessment reports in New South Wales, Australia

Crime risks assessment reports are prepared for some specific new proposed developments in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. These assessments aim to identify crime risks and should include reference to how the design of the proposed development minimises or mitigates crime risks. In 2010, Clancey et al (2011, 2012) reviewed the content of 33 crime risk assessment reports prepared in NSW. In order to investigate the impact of these crime risk assessments on the subsequent development process, site visits were conducted in February 2015 to 23 locations for which original crime risk assessment reports had been prepared. These site visits sought to determine if developments had been completed, and if so, whether potential crime risks were evident (or not) from a review of the key physical features of the site. It was found that 10 out of these 23 sites (43.5 per cent) had not been developed or construction was still being undertaken, demonstrating the lengthy development process. Of those developments that had been built, they represented a variety of functions which raises questions about the utility of generic crime risk assessment guidelines. For example, the crime and security issues of a major hospital are vastly different to a small suburban residential development. While access control measures were ubiquitous across the diverse sites, greater attention might have been given to natural ladders and the function and maintenance of communal areas. The findings from this research have implications for ongoing policy development in this area.