It was a typical weekend for me as a middle-school kid. My family and I had just moved to the United States two months prior in hope of finding a safer life than the one we were exposed to Colombia. We settled in Miami, Florida and I quickly assimilated to my new home. I spent my weekends learning how to rollerblade, hanging out with my new friends and occasionally having dinner with my parents at our favorite Chinese restaurant. It was after one of these dinners that my mom and dad surprised me by announcing we were stopping at Blockbuster on our way home. In Colombia, the concept of being able to rent a videotape/DVD was completely unheard of. Crime and theft were rampant and if one “rented” a DVD rest assured it would never be returned. Blockbuster was an entirely new concept to me, and I absolutely loved it! The thought of it leading me to become a victim of a crime never crossed my mind.
It must have been around 9:00 p.m. and we were the only people in the store save for the two employees working at the time. I must have spent half an hour running through the aisles picking way too many movies and loading up on tons of popcorn and candy by the register. As we were approaching the register to pay, two masked men came in through the exit door, each holding a gun and held it to the employee’s heads. My mom’s first instinct was to cover my eyes so I wouldn’t see anything in case the worst were to happen. It was your typical stickup robbery, they just took everyone’s wallets and emptied the cash register, and they were gone as quickly as they came.
The entire incident must have taken place within a maximum of 10 minutes. However, it’s an experience that I’ve carried with me throughout my entire life. I have poured over the details of everything that happened that night, time and time again, wondering how this crime could have been prevented. The defensible space theory, which deals with both crime and the fear of crime, proposes that certain design features will increase residents’ sense of security and decrease crime in the territory (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). Thinking back to the design of the Blockbuster, I realize that it was basically defenseless and extremely prone to robbery. A one-story building located on a secluded street with a parking lot behind it. One entered through the back door and exited through the front door where the security sensers were located. There was little vehicle traffic on the street, and the windows were placed up high so one couldn’t see inside when driving by. To deter crime, spaces should convey to would-be intruders a strong sense that if they enter they are very likely to be observed, to be identified as intruders and to have difficulty escaping (Cisneros, 1996). Seeing as how this Blockbuster met none of the aforementioned criteria, the robbers probably marked it as being the perfect location to commit their crime.
I drive past that Blockbuster to this day, however it’s now a dentist’s office. The architectural design remains exactly the same and the parking lot looks like it hasn’t been striped since that fateful night. While a dentist’s office is certainly less likely to be robbed than a commercial store, this building is still immensely susceptible to crime. A few structural changes, including some thoughtfully placed windows and additional landscape lighting would help it become more visible and thus protected. While thankfully no one was hurt that night, it’s definitely interesting to contemplate that if the design of the building had adhered to the defensible space theory, the crime might have never occurred to begin with.
References:
Cisneros, H. (1996). Defensible Space: Deterring Crime and Building Community. Cityscape, 15-33. Retrieved February 11, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20868434
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
That is absolutely terrifying. I live in Palm Beach county. Miami is like another world to me. It’s fun, chaotic, crowded, eccentric and a city where crime thrives. Most of my male friends have experienced some degree of theft in Miami. One of my male friends was walking down Collins Avenue when approached by a two beautiful women in a car. The women flirted with him, asking if he needed a ride. He was partially impaired, which clouded his judgement, but he took them up on the offer. He got in the backseat, one of the girls jumped from the passenger front seat to the back. She started groping his upper arm then went down to his wrist. She tried taking his Rolex watch off. A fight ensued, but the woman driving would not pull over. He did eventually get out of the car (with his watch), but stories like yours and my friends do not surprise me, especially in Miami.
Defensible space theory is built on the idea that the community protects together (Donnelly,2010). Newman suggests a community working together to keep outsiders out (Donnelly, 2010). But who is the community? Miami is such a diverse city. Over 70% of the population is Hispanic. Referring to people as Hispanic is like saying my heritage is European. In Miami there is “Little Havana” that is an area that is predominately Cuban. I would imagine that the Defensible space theory focusing on territoriality would be successful in that part of town. The Residents probably see Little Havana as their own, with their own people, so they want to exert more control over the activities taking place and they probably want to discourage outsiders from intruding to commit crime.
Great work on your blog!
Donnelly, Patrick G., “Newman, Oscar: Defensible Space Theory” (2010). Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications. Paper 30. http://ecommons.udayton.edu/soc_fac_pub/30