Crime and Architectural Style

Historically, social scientists have argued that human behavior is, to a large degree, a response to environmental conditions. Recently, a group of criminologists have posited a direct relationship between certain environmental structures and reported crime rates. Studies exploring this area have pointed to the association between crme rates and highrise residences as support for their position. However, several serious weaknesses exist in this previous research. High-rise structures are generally either in high crime areas or are luxury apartments with guarded entrances. In addition, such research is generally based on official crime data. The present study investigates, through victimization techniques, the experiences of residents of several high- and low-rise structures in a traditionally low crime area: the college campus. In addition, measures of the respondent's sense of community were employed to address the self-policing hypothesis of the environmental design approach. Although causality cannot be inferred from the findings, a positive association was observed between high-rise areas and property crime rates. Furthermore, both of these variables were negatively associated with the respondents' sense of community.