The gated community: residents' crime experience and perception of safety behind gates and fences in the urban area

The primary purpose of the study is to explore the connections between residents'\nperception of safety and their crime experience, and the existence of gates and fences in\nmulti-family housing communities in urban areas. For cultivating discussions regarding\nthe connections between gated community territory, safety, and crime experience, this\nstudy classifies apartment communities according to the conditions of their gating and\nfencing: gated communities, perceived gated communities, and non-gated communities.\nIt investigates residents' perceptions of safety and their opinions and managers' opinions\non gated territory and safety.\nThe major findings from the surveys are: Residents felt safer in gated communities\nthan in non-gated communities. Residents' perceptions of safety in perceived gated\ncommunities were similar to those in gated communities. These results reflected the\nterritoriality issue for improving residents' perceived safety in apartment communities.\nResidents' perceptions of safety in architectural spaces showed that residents' fear of crime in public and semi-public spaces must first be addressed in order to ease residents'\nfear of crime in an apartment territory.\nThe reality of crime in apartment communities differed from residents'\nperceptions of safety. Gated community residents reported a higher crime rate than nongated\ncommunity residents. In addition to gates and fences that define apartment\nterritory, such elements as patrol services, bright lighting, direct emergency buttons, and\nvisual access to the local police were indicated as the important factors for improving\nresidents' perceived safety.\nSome architectural factors and demographic factors exhibited statistical\ncorrelations with residents' perceptions of safety. Those were types of communities,\ndwelling floor level, educational attainment, family size, and annual income. For\npredicting residents' perceptions of safety in their apartment territory, multiple\nregression models were obtained and residents' neighborhood attachment was also\nconsidered in the multiple regression models. The apartment community managers\nemphasized direct maintenance issues and residents' social contact with neighbors for\nimproving residents' perceived safety.\nIn conclusion, design and managerial suggestions for safer communities were\nproposed. For creating safer multi-family housing communities, territoriality and related\narchitectural conditions and managerial considerations and residents' participations are\nemphasized. The concept of community programming for safer multi-family housing\ncommunities is suggested.