Appointment Robbery: Do Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Strategies Work? Voices from the Street

reduced with modifications and planning to the physical environment by making involvement in criminal activity more difficult to complete by increasing the visibility of the offender thereby raising the risk of being caught. A new type of criminal opportunity has evolved in the 21st Century with the introduction and explosion of direct e-commerce opportunities with online and app advertisements to buy and sell items through such venues as Craigslist, OfferUp, Letgo, and Facebook Marketplace. This new crime is defined as an ‘appointment robbery’. Using interviews of 12 active robbers from a metropolitan area in Texas, this study explored whether or not offenders were deterred from participating in criminal behavior due to the implementation of CPTED strategies. Results from this study suggest that offenders reported that territoriality, natural surveillance, activity support, and access control did serve as deterrents during the decision to commit a robbery. The study examined the original CPTED theory as posited by Jeffery in 1971. The study found support for the original four CPTED strategies.