Architectural Theory Review

ISSN: 1326-4826 (Print) 1755-0475 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ratr20

The Economy of Fear: Oscar Newman Launches

Crime Prevention through Urban Design
(1969–197x)

Joy Knoblauch

To cite this article: Joy Knoblauch (2014) The Economy of Fear: Oscar Newman Launches
Crime Prevention through Urban Design (1969–197x), Architectural Theory Review, 19:3,
336-354, DOI: 10.1080/13264826.2014.1036492

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2014.1036492

Published online: 02 Sep 2015.

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 Architectural Theory Review, 2014
Vol. 19, No. 3, 336–354, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2014.1036492

JOY KNOBLAUCH
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THE ECONOMY OF FEAR: Oscar Newman

Launches Crime Prevention through Urban
Design (1969 – 197x)

The architecture of fear has become more

complex, and more subtle, as it has adapted
to the contradictions of privacy and publicity
in American urbanism in the late twentieth
century. In response to a growing fear of
urban violence in the late 1960s, architect
Oscar Newman argued that a network of
private domains would prevent crime and
preserve a way of urban life that he and others
felt was under attack. In his book, Defensible
Space: Crime Prevention through Urban Design,
the architect presented a carefully crafted
theory of human territoriality and natural
surveillance, which was received as common
sense because of its resonance with prevailing
public opinion.

Q 2015 Taylor & Francis

 ATR 19:3-14 THE ECONOMY OF FEAR

Introduction common sense idea that humans are naturally

territorial has more complex roots in the idea
The fear of violence can have as much influence of private property, post-colonial violence, and
on the designed environment as violence itself Cold War concerns about human aggression.
does. And yet, the bunkers, bollards, and In the 1950s and 1960s, social scientists
checkpoints that have become the physical published high-profile research on the violence
manifestation of fear over the last hundred of totalitarian authority, the protests in cities like
years also pose a rhetorical problem. These Newark and Detroit, and the assassinations of
forms contradict the idea of an open society public figures like President John F. Kennedy in
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and their presentation to the public must be 1963 and Martin Luther King Junior in 1968.
one of “calibrated superficiality”, carefully Publications such as Theodor Adorno et al.’s
constructed, but seemingly simple.1 Such The Authoritarian Personality (1950) or the later
forms of security must be packaged to fit Kerner Commission report on the Causes of
within pre-existing beliefs held by the public so Civil Disobedience sought to explain the
that the solutions appear as common sense. characteristics that led to violence and disorder.
When the architecture of the bunker is too Then as now, psychological and anthropological
obvious, too clumsy, or too expensive, it starts explanations that rely on innate or “natural”
to seem like a restraint, rather than a defence. causes for human behaviour are slippery, for it
Building literal bunkers may be particularly is hard to argue with the “human sciences” of
unpalatable in housing because some residents biology and anthropology. And yet, when such
rightfully feel that it is more of a restraint on ideas lead to seemingly self-evident theories of
their freedoms than a guarantee of safety. For form that rely on the idea of a human habitat,
architects, the presence of such public opinions the need to critique these theories of form is
has given rise to an opportunity to use new even greater (Figure 1).
discursive skills to massage architectural forms
to engage a wider audience. Designing the
presentation of an idea through a book, journal, The Lessons of a Murder
or, more recently, in comic books, architects
from Le Corbusier to Bjarke Ingels have Defensible Space was launched in a climate of
employed the art of public relations as an fear exacerbated by tales of urban violence,
integral part of their work. one of the most notable being the murder of
Kitty Genovese. The story of Genovese’s death
The theory of defensible space formulated by begins with the young woman coming home
architect Oscar Newman in 1969 was a from her job at a bar, at around 3 a.m. on 13
masterful response to the public and govern- March 1964. As she approached her home,
ment audiences of his time. His “alternative to Genovese was attacked; the crime took place
the fortress apartment” was essentially a soft not in a deserted alley, but close to the large
bunker, a network of defensible territories, apartment building where she lived. The young
rather than hard walls and locks. The idea was woman’s screams brought 38 witnesses to their
received as a kind of common sense, and the windows over the course of the half-hour
book offered a compromise that allowed for incident. Genovese managed to evade her
the construction of security without the attacker only to be caught again, and again, and
impression of restraint. But the seemingly ultimately killed. Readers of The New York Times

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Figure 1. Front cover of dust jacket, Oscar Newman, Defensible Space: Crime Prevention through Urban Design
(New York: Macmillan, 1972). Courtesy of MacMillan Publishers.

were told that despite the 38 pairs of eyes on Martin Gansberg, relayed the homicide detec-
the street and the duration of the attack, not a tive’s assessment of the crime as a case where
single witness called the police until after the “good people” did nothing to help a neighbour,
victim was dead.2 The author of the article, echoing the apocryphal Edmund Burke quote:

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of inherently unsafe, and Newman’s revolutionary
evil is for good people to do nothing”. But ideas came ten years after Jane Jacobs had
rather than encouraging Americans to inter- already made her own very similar argument
vene and take cries on the street seriously, the about safety, through her theory of eyes on the
story emphasised the moral that Americans street. What explains the prominence of all the
should not make Genovese’s mistake and rely above facts, if none of them are exactly true?
on their neighbours for help. As such, it joined a More than just an attempt to right history,
larger media portrayal of crime that encour- which has already been done in these cases,
aged people to be fearful even on the streets what follows is a demystification of the
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near their homes. The simplified version of the mechanism by which defensible space became
story has since been challenged, not least by popular and of the role of fear of crime in
the court records which indicate that some motivating changes to housing form.4 For,
neighbours did shout at the attacker and one amidst a climate of tightening resources, new
succeeded in driving him off. Despite these policing technology, and new theories of human
revisions, it is the simple story of a woman aggression, housing authorities picked up
murdered while her neighbours did nothing Newman’s idea, the urban public picked up
that has become famous. his book, and the discipline of architecture,
disgusted and exhausted, began to turn its back
Eight years later, another death was made into on the social project of providing decent
a high-profile sign of the dire condition of housing that had been central to so many of the
American cities. This time, the architecture was strands of the modern movement, from the
to blame, when Pruitt Igoe, hopeful public work of Minoru Yamasaki to Alison and Peter
housing project turned icon of the death of Smithson and Catherine Bauer to Le Corbusier.
modern architecture, was demolished in 1972
in St. Louis. Defensible Space, Crime Prevention The economy of fear occupied both a literal
through Urban Design was published a few and a discursive environment. On the one
months later, just in time for vivid images of the hand, the existing designed environment of
implosion to appear on the dust jacket with the public housing was a source of fear, a site onto
caption: “The final remedy found by the city of which fears were projected, and a site of
St. Louis for part of its public housing intervention in an attempt to solve the problem
problem”.3 Newman proposed an alternative of crime. At the same time, the discursive
to these deaths, a way to save cities, modern environment of scarcity, declining funding for
architecture, and the human population of social programs, urban migration, racial ten-
cities. The book was a success: it sold well, it sions, and government faith in science and data
was applauded for overturning all existing provided the medium in which CPTED gained
theories, and Newman’s ideas remain the basis such popularity. Studying defensible space yields
for an ongoing industry of Crime Prevention insights into the complex intertwining of the
Through Environmental Design (CPTED) literal and discursive environment, or between
(Figure 2). form and idea. The literal deterioration of
housing, graffiti, vandalism, and lack of main-
And yet, Genovese was not actually murdered tenance spurred fear. And the discourse
while her neighbours did nothing, Pruitt Igoe surrounding American fear of crime did
was not demolished because high-rises are produce real spaces aligned with Newman’s

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Figure 2. Back cover of dust jacket, Oscar Newman, Defensible Space: Crime Prevention through Urban Design
(New York: Macmillan, 1972). Courtesy of Macmillan Publishers.

principles—namely, low-rise, high-density hous- housing. The towers in the park with shared
ing with separate entries and proprietary pieces resources and shared spaces were replaced
of the ground to replace mid-century public with an aggregate of semi-private territories.

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Fear and Human Territoriality buildings when there was no other option.
Police were themselves afraid to enter many
Oscar Newman was an architect and planner, a high-rises, and murders like Genovese’s
consultant for the Department of Housing and shocked even veteran investigators. The fabric
Urban Development as well as the New York of society was coming apart and the only
City Housing Authority (NYCHA). He was an answer was to form enclaves and retreat.
entrepreneur and a writer who published Newman’s theory would allow for the
Defensible Space as a popular account of preservation of a way of urban life that was
architecture’s ability to “create encounter” and very much under threat, or so readers were
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foster a good society. Published by Macmillan in told. Defensible space was no small thing; if
hardcover in 1972, then in paperback in 1973, implemented, readers were told it might be the
the book was widely reviewed in the popular “last stand of the urban man committed to an
media. The paperback boasted a laudatory open society”.6
quote from Time magazine on its cover as well
as praise from the San Francisco Examiner, the Rather than life in artificial containers, Newman
Sacramento Bee, the Village Voice, the New York advocated design for “natural surveillance”
Times Book Review, and Forum, as well as an and tapped into a newly popular theory of
endorsement from Ada Louise Huxtable, the territoriality. He was particularly intrigued by
New York Times architecture critic, who called Robert Ardrey, an anthropologist and play-
the book “a supremely significant study”. wright, whose account of innate animal and
human aggression joined Konrad Lorenz’s On
Defensible Space was marketed as a response Aggression (1966) and Desmond Morris’ The
to fear of urban crime. The front flap of the Naked Ape (1967).7 Earlier, Raymond Dart had
original dust jacket asked, “When louder argued that the evolution of large brains came
alarms, increased police surveillance, and after tool use among early humans, displacing
stronger locks fail to prevent crime, where do the idea that large brains were a requirement
residents turn?” Newman offered a solution for tool use. Or, as Ardrey’s artful language
that could be implemented by housing declared: it was not the case that man had
authorities, architects, and planners to address fathered the weapon, but “the weapon, instead,
the crises of rapidly changing cities, particularly had fathered man”.8 The theory suggested that
the dire conditions in the high-rise housing built early humans had picked up and then wielded
after World War II, housing which the dust objects out of a need to defend themselves,
jacket called “a panicky response . . . They were and the skills learned in manipulating those
designed for population, not protection; and weapons had led to larger brains. The idea is
they have become ‘containers for the victimi- illustrated in the famous scene around the
zation of their inhabitants’”.5 This artificial monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s film, 2001:
environment was considered to be so bad that A Space Odyssey. Released in 1968, just as
it threatened the continued existence of a Newman started his research, the film depicts
healthy urban society, particularly so in the case primates attacking each other, illustrating the
of children. Newman opened the book with “killer ape” theory, which argued that human
the declaration that the 1968 Federal Housing violence and technology are inextricably
Act had recommended that families with intertwined. The theory that humans were
children should only be housed in high-rise inherently violent and warlike was meaningful in

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an age dominated by fear of nuclear apocalypse sex drive as only applicable in situations of
and crime in the streets. The idea was ample food and restricted space, such as zoos.
provocative: that try as one might, one’s innate In captivity, where the animals had enough food
nature would always govern. Or, “The dog and not much land to defend, the sex drive
barking at you from behind his master’s fence governed.11 While humans in cities may be
acts for a motive indistinguishable from that of more like animals in the zoo than in the wild
his master when the fence was built”.9 When (having little space and ample food), Ardrey
compared with the full title of Ardrey’s book (A argued that they were like animals in the wild in
Personal Inquiry into the Animal Origins of being more motivated by turf than by sex.
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Property and Nations), it’s clear that such In addition to using research in animal
theories were being used to naturalise the behaviour, his ideas were informed by his
concept of private property in the face of Cold experiences in post-colonial Africa, where he
War communism as well as to explain witnessed upheavals and political unrest that he
aggression, and, in Newman’s hands, to make felt were rooted in similar aggressions and
the link between cities and crime. drives. Historian Marianna Torgovnick has
argued that such confusion of animal and
Such arguments intentionally blur the lines human allowed authors like Ardrey to draw on
between human and animal, borrowing from their own image of the primitive to answer the
the zoological for the sociological. Ardrey, for problems of modern society, equating animal
one, traced the origin of his idea to zoological behaviour with non-Western societies and
research on territoriality in the 1920s and denying the coeval status of the non-
1930s, a time when thinkers and leaders were Western.12
intrigued by the possibility of a communal
society that would do away with property Following Ardrey, Newman never forced his
entirely. But, he explained, even though they readers to make the conceptual leaps between
wanted to get rid of property, these thinkers animal and human explicit and, instead, relied
had to admit that ownership of property was on his audience’s willingness to make the leap
as basic as the sex drive, if not stronger. from animal territoriality through “primitive”
He claimed that the territory drive had not universals to the residents of public housing.13
been discovered sooner because most of the On the first page of Defensible Space, Newman
research on behaviour had been performed on wrote, “We have become strangers sharing the
animals in zoos and laboratories. In the zoo or largest collective habitats in human history”.14
laboratory setting, the animals had ample food The claim was a simple, clear declaration of his
and little ability to establish turf. Ardrey opinion that cities are artificial. But it was also a
explained that the revolution in thinking about formulation that, washed of any specific idea of
the sex drive occurred when American who “we” are, allowed a growing silent majority
psychologist C. R. Carpenter travelled to to make the leap untroubled by any explicit
Panama to study howling monkeys in 1934. racial implications. Perhaps, because he was
The psychologist returned home to his “low- talking about public housing, he removed the
flung modern house” with tales of easy animal or anthropological examples and
sexuality and violently defended territory in replaced them with the language of common
the Panamanian jungle.10 Carpenter’s account sense. He simply opened the chapter on terri-
“demolished” Sigmund Freud’s theory of the toriality with a common—if misleading—use of

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“history” as an indication of universal, innate African village, an igloo, a pueblo, and a modern
qualities. He wrote: “Historically the intactness structure similar to the United Nations building.
of the family living unit and the territorial zone The accompanying text drove the point home:
of the cluster of family units has always been “En Afrique, au Pole Nord, à New York ou en
given architectural expression”.15 France, la notion: Habiter se décompose
toujours en deux fonctions bases: de plus, les
Newman’s theory of defensible space also services sont le mêmes [sic] partout et
reflected the earlier anthropological interests toujours: élément determines [sic]”.19 The
of the Team 10 group, beginning in the 1950s as message was that in studying people untainted
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they pursued a more authentic grounding for by the modern world, architects were able to
architecture. In the post-war, post-colonial era, tap into the basic nature of humanity and its
their search often took the European and housing needs. The proposition was as much
American architects outside of the about the problems facing the white Europeans
modernised West, seeking anthropological and Americans as it was about the Africans and
research on so-called “primitive” societies. Van others. In Newman’s work, the direct refer-
Eyck was entranced by the mud villages built by ences to African and other non-white peoples
the Dogon in Africa, and a Native American were left out of the text. Even so, his work
pueblo found its way into his Otterlo Circles as would have recalled the popular anthropolo-
the illustration of the “vernacular of the heart”.16 gical theory of human territoriality.

Similarly, Alison and Peter Smithson pursued an Newman’s invocation of the architectural idea of
interest in the Sea Dayak longhouses— habitat and the popular idea of human
particularly the multipurpose space of the aggression was a bold one. He argued that by
longhouse porch—as they designed the reinforcing this natural tendency, architecture
elevated corridors for the Golden Lane could solve the problems of housing and cities,
Competition in 1952.17 The Smithsons were and foster an open society through form. Deftly
intrigued by the anthropological lens that was avoiding an authoritarian tone, he framed
turned on the British working class—and the “defensible space” as simply removing the
Sea Dayaks—by Tom Harrisson, a polymath artificial problems of communal spaces in cities.
anthropologist with a popular series of BBC He would be simply allowing a natural
television programs on remote locations such phenomenon of human territoriality to resur-
as Borneo. The Smithsons’ work was informed face and solve the crime problem through self-
by photographs by Nigel Henderson and policing. Thus, “defensible space” combined
discussions with his wife, Judith Stephen, visual surveillance with territory, operating in
another anthropologist.18 Photographs of response to the post-Genovese era with its faith
African dwellings were common in the pages in the so-called bystander effect. Triggered by the
of the journal, Forum, and Newman used one media presentation of the 38 neighbours who
such photograph taken by Aldo Van Eyck to did not intervene, the bystander effect predicts
illustrate his theory of the threshold. Georges that when a given individual feels that he or she is
Candilis, Alexis Josic, and Shadrach Woods responsible, he or she will act. In what remains
produced a diagram, appearing in the 1959 one of the landmark findings of social psychol-
Otterlo volume edited by Newman, which ogy, the recommendation is to avoid the dangers
assembled four typologies of habitation: an of an undifferentiated crowd where no one feels

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compelled to act.20 With clearly defined pencil to trace groupings of small, closed circles.
territories, each resident would be empowered In one drawing, eight circles are nested inside a
beyond simply having “eyes on the street”. larger boundary with their backs to the heavier
boundary. In another, these cells aggregate into
a tree-like structure of private, semi-private,
Common Sense semi-public, and public space (Figure 3). The
small spaces maintain their independence from
In Newman’s book, the power of human each other and their detachment from the
territoriality was presented as common sense. building envelope. The small circles represent
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His argumentation was simple, using “A Tale of individual housing units along with the grounds
Two Projects” to compare a good case and a or stoops that belong to each unit, containing
dangerous one: the low rise at Brownsville and the private space of family life. The social model
the high rise at Van Dyke. He used photographs of an aggregate of cells has been theorised as a
of the projects, showing graffiti as an index of multitude, and its urban form analysed by Peter
violence, in contrast to baby carriages indicating Sloterdijk as a foam city. The foam city replaces
that the buildings were safe even for children. the city of the masses with partition walls that
He also used data, gathered from the New York act as an “interautistic minimum”.22 These cells
City Housing Authority, allowing him and his maintain their autonomy and their difference,
reviewers to claim that he had proof that high- only loosely connected through shared owner-
rise buildings with a certain type of visually ship of a wall. In Newman’s world, clear
ambiguous circulation caused more crime. partitions would produce a safe society.
Experts critiqued his analysis, but the popular
reception of the “proof ” in this data remained.21 The diagram provided a distilled version of his
spatial theory that was quick and accessible to
The book applauded “current practitioners of his audience of administrators and city
defensible space”, including some notable recent residents as well as designers. Tilted on the
work by eminent architects, though, of course, 45 degree angle, the drawing is easier to read
the book had only recently begun circulating the for those unfamiliar with reading plans. Such
ideas. Examples included work by Lawrence diagrams contributed to the common-sense,
Halprin and I. M. Pei, as well as the firms, Davis self-evident quality of the book, transforming
and Brody and Chloethiel Woodard Smith; behavioural and sociological theories into the
principals of the latter two were so esteemed as visible realm in a way that resonated with a
to have been on the 1968 National Commission growing middle class. For designers, such
on Urban Problems appointed by President diagrams were appealing as abstractions that
Lyndon Johnson and chaired by Senator Paul distilled social science into a form that they
Douglas. These architectural examples were could clothe with materials and dimensions of
intended to illustrate what could be built under their choosing, while maintaining the psycho-
the difficult climate of existing fire codes, scarcity logical mechanism of territoriality. Foreground-
of funding, and high interest rates. ing the spatial diagram also masked the agency
of the housing authority, police, or federal
Newman proposed a powerful social theory, granting agency who sought to reduce urban
exemplified in the paradigmatic drawings of crime and pacify a population truly caught living
defensible space that use the soft lines of a in these containers. As with Jeremy Bentham’s

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Figure 3. Diagram of territory, produced with the help of an architecture graduate student named Jerry Rosenfeld,
Newman, Defensible Space, 9. Courtesy of Kopper Newman.

aim for the panopticon, the environment itself University in sociology, but soon lost interest
was the means to produce peaceful, productive and dropped out to work on a farm in New
behaviour, avoiding the costs, abuses, and Jersey.23 He eventually returned to McGill and
rebellions that come with overt policing. graduated from the six-year architecture
program with honours in 1959, and then
went to Europe on a travel scholarship. After
The Research Economy his funds were spent, he sought work with
Team 10 member Jaap Bakema and his firm,
Newman’s background prepared him to craft a Van den Broek and Bakema, where he was
careful presentation of his ideas that would given the task of chronicling the recent 1959
resonate with his many audiences, from conference of the Congrès International
architects to housing authority officials, to d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in Otterlo.24
members of the urban public. He was well Producing an account of the conference
acquainted with the intellectual and practical brought Newman into close contact with
problems of architecture and urban design in Van Eyck’s anthropological viewpoint and the
the post-war period. At times, he came into Smithsons’ attempts to remake Le Corbusier’s
direct contact with some of its most influential “streets in the air”.
ideas first hand (Figure 4).
Returning from the Netherlands, Newman
Newman was born in Montreal to a union worked with Thomas Vreeland, and the pair
organiser father and a mother whose family earned some recognition for their work on a
had emigrated from Russia to Quebec in 190-acre “student city” in Quebec as well as a
1840. He began his studies at McGill New Jersey project that was selected for

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Figure 4. Oscar Newman (no date). Photograph courtesy of Kopper Newman.

publication in the Robert A. M. Stern-edited, Renewal Design Center. Between 1966 and
40 Under 40: An Exhibition of Young Talent in 1967, he came into contact with Kevin Lynch,
Architecture.25 After his work with Vreeland, the founder of cognitive mapping, whom he
Newman taught in St. Louis at Washington thanks for “useful early direction and useful
University, where he conducted his own criticism” in his work on a study of the
architectural research, leading an Urban Lawndale area of Chicago between 1966 and

Figure 5. Mock-up for a drawing in Newman, Defensible Space, 184, no date. Courtesy of Kopper Newman.

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1967.26 Moreover, in the early 1970s, he but also in service of a government with an
participated in debates at the Institute for increasing appetite for data about poverty
Architecture and Urban Studies, led by Peter programs.30
Eisenman.27
Between 1960 and 1973, fear of crime played
Added to his experience with the dominant an increasing role in American politics. Crime
debates in architecture, Newman’s research rates were up; some of the rise was real,
was subtly shaped by the “research economy” while some was imagined. Demographically,
of the 1970s. At this time, funding sources there was an increase in the proportion of the
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shifted from large federal programs to promote population between the ages of 15 and 24,
the health, education, and welfare of the which may have contributed to a particular
population to so-called franchise-state efforts increase in crimes against property.31 Such
to prevent crime, punish offenders, and vandalism presented a visible marker of
manage the population through incentive disorder that worried many older citizens,
structures. As explained by Alan Wolfe, the especially when combined with the tendency
late-twentieth century American government to conflate violent protests with street crime
came to outsource more public functions to under the heading of “violence in the streets”
private agencies and to rely on independent and to suffer a vague fearfulness as a result.
expert consultants, resulting in what he called a In addition to riots, three prominent assassina-
franchise state.28 Where the calls for research tions—of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy,
in the early 1960s were founded in the belief and Martin Luther King, Jr—added to the
that Americans could use their “pragmatic perception that the stability of American
genius” to solve any problem they put their society was threatened by violence. Experts in
energy into, that optimism and energy were on the 1960s cited a range of factors as causes
the decline by 1968– 1969, when Newman for the alleged crime wave, whether it was
began the defensible space research.29 By the the liberal Warren Court and its protection of
end of President Johnson’s term, the funding for defendants’ rights or the general thirst for
social programs was largely diverted to the war violence diagnosed by Karl Menninger as a
in Vietnam, bringing to an end Kennedy’s and persistent feature of American society. The
Johnson’s plans to bring the world-renowned presentation of violence in the news media
American affluence to all of its citizens. The most likely also played a part in the rising fear,
Great Society ideal of improving life for all contributing to a general sense of the
Americans gave way to a division among deterioration of the moral and social order.
welfare programs, with social insurance pro- However, it was unclear then, and remains
grams for some groups—such as Social unclear today, whether the number of crimes
Security for the elderly—split off from the actually increased or if an increase in reporting
increasingly unpopular Aid to Families with and the automated processing of reports
Dependent Children, which served low- produced the impression of a crime wave.32
income women and children, often African- Along with the growing use of punch card
American. The discourse of poverty shifted to systems, closed circuit cameras, and stream-
more and more quantitative research, shying lined reporting systems like the 911 telephone
away from the conflicts over the “culture of system, criminologists and other social scien-
poverty” raised by the 1965 Moynihan Report, tists took on an increasingly public role,

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causing further public exposure to the perception and architectural design, in addition
problem of crime.33 to teaching a course on the social meaning of
space. In the course, Rand brought together
American fearfulness influenced a shift in sources from philosophy and anthropology,
federal policy after Republican Barry Gold- mixing Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-
water seized on the growing fear of crime and Ponty, and Robert Ardrey. Realising their
made it a central issue in his campaign to shared interest in territory, Rand and Newman
replace President Johnson in 1964. While decided to pursue a joint project and started to
Johnson won the election, he realised he would look for funding, beginning with the National
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need to respond to the rising fear of crime in Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Rand recalls
order to combat the political threat being that they had several connections there and
wielded by the Republicans. He began to frame were aware that the NIMH had funded other
a new “war on crime”, while at the same time architectural researchers, such as Christopher
arguing that his war on poverty was in fact a Alexander. After visiting Washington, DC,
war on crime. In 1967, Johnson called for a several times without success, they decided to
Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement shift their efforts to the LEAA due to the
and Administration of Justice, which eventually recently passed Safe Streets Act. While the
yielded such recommendations as the Law architects and the agency were both sceptical
Enforcement Assistance Administration initially, Newman was convincing and the pair
(LEAA) and the emergency 911 system. The eventually built a good relationship with Henry
LEAA was eventually funded with the passage Ruth, the head of the LEAA.
of the Safe Streets Act of 1968. Amid debates
about federalism—the extent to which the In addition to the LEAA’s interests, Newman
federal government ought to intervene in social and Rand’s theories appealed to housing
problems—the LEAA was structured as a authorities tasked with managing the dire
system of grants from the federal government conditions in public housing in the late 1960s
to state and local agencies.34 It was the LEAA and early 1970s as they faced “white flight”,
that funded Newman’s research, even as he which left surrounding neighbourhoods in
sought funding for less crime-related work on decay. They were also challenged by a loosen-
community and housing. ing of the regulations over eligibility and an
ongoing national migration of former agricul-
In early 1969, when Newman began the ture workers into cities. These changes meant
defensible space research project, he was that the role of public housing shifted from a
teaching at Columbia University and hoping to brief springboard for those temporarily in need
study enclaves.35 He was intrigued by a housing to one where long-term residents had little
type he had encountered in Europe, where prospect for a better situation. In these years,
housing surrounds the exterior of a block, with public housing officials faced reduced budgets
a park-like centre. At Columbia, Newman and rising demand, making them amenable to
encountered the psychologist George Rand, Newman and Rand’s overture about saving
who was there on a two-year fellowship money on maintenance and policing. Rand
sponsored by the US Department of Edu- recalls that housing authorities who maintained
cation. Rand was working on an interdisciplin- police forces of their own were initially quite
ary study of the relationship between spatial eager to hear Newman and Rand’s proposal to

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solve problems without expensive personnel state of psychology, which he characterised as

increases. Newman and Rand sought out the severely chastened by failing to predict the
New York City Housing Authority, with whom racial unrest and student protests of the late
they held a number of meetings. After some 1960s.40 While architects and administrators
convincing, “arm twisting” and a few visits to countered that it was their job to make such
public housing, they were granted access to choices in light of inadequate information,
NYCHA police records and other data.36 Goffman declared that it was not the role of a
social scientist to advocate policy when the
facts were still uncertain. He declared:
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Architecture and Social Science

Just because action is going to be taken
In a 1969 conference organised by Newman doesn’t mean that I have to present a
and Rand, the author of a soon-to-be published plan . . . I can argue with you about the
study of Pruitt Igoe, notable sociologist Lee binds you get into when you start trying
Rainwater, commented on the feeling that to act rationally about so large and vital
most public housing researchers felt very much and living a thing as living arrangements,
under attack.37 Speaking to an audience and just because somebody has to make
composed of LEAA personnel, Department those decisions does not mean to say I
of Housing and Urban Development adminis- have to. I will just stand by and criticize
trators, NYCHA representatives, psychologists, whatever you do . . . That is my job. You
sociologists, and architects, Rainwater make the decisions, and I do the
explained that in order to take action and bitching.41
improve housing, what was needed was a more
concrete grounding from which advocates Following Goffman’s presentation, Newman
could argue.38 Newman’s forthcoming data countered that he did not think social science
analysis would fit this bill. A far more agnostic had achieved any great theory of society, so
tone was taken by psychologist Erving Goff- that architects might as well try to understand
man, a man much admired by Rand. Goffman social forces for themselves.42 For their part,
was the author of a well-regarded study of the audience was excited by Goffman, and they
behaviour in public spaces, and the attention to continued to refer to his remarks on the
the semi-public zone between housing and second day of the conference. Various
street was of great interest to him. interpretations of his words were offered,
among them the conclusion that it was so rare
However, Goffman charged that the group was to hear an intellectual of that calibre address
moving much too quickly from objective the topic of public housing that they had all
analysis of behaviour in such semi-public spaces been stirred up by it. In this milieu, Newman
to design decisions. He worried that while too was perceived as an intellectual and an
psychology knew a bit about the so-called intense personality, and one of the participants
“egocentric” kind of territory—i.e., personal wisely remarked that Newman’s ideas were
space surrounding an individual’s body—the very “saleable” and that they belonged on
field knew little about the way in which “turf ” Madison Avenue. As a result of the conference,
functioned in humans.39 Goffman explained Newman and Rand gained a substantial
that his caution was amplified by the current transcript of material and NYU gave them

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 KNOBLAUCH

another grant, which allowed them to hire five the grounds.45 And, of course, after Rand
or six staff for the office. departed, Newman published Defensible Space.

The pair went on to study the 165 housing Newman continued to work with the New
projects with almost 1600 buildings under the York City Housing Authority, arguing that his
aegis of the New York City Housing Authority. expertise would save the NYCHA money by
NYCHA provided crime report data, allowing reducing their maintenance and policing costs,
Newman to claim that he had access to a vast and they gave him access to their data.46 He
“laboratory” of public housing. This research built his expertise with NYCHA data and was
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was intended to come out in 1970, but the instrumental in encouraging the use of
release was interrupted when Rand accepted surveillance equipment on their sites, such as
an offer to teach at UCLA and departed from cameras to allow tenants to buzz only known
what he recalled as a “tumultuous” relationship visitors through the remote door downstairs in
with Newman.43 A sense of the disagreement a tower or a Compu-Guard system to allow
can be gained from an essay Rand published in tenant patrols to monitor the grounds.
1969. In the essay, he objected to the way that Counter to some theories of surveillance,
“the architect-planner” instrumentalises psy- there is evidence that residents did not see the
chologists for “a redefinition of priorities, a cameras and patrols as an entirely negative
finger on the panic button, and a rationalization experience. Depictions of surveillance technol-
for his carrying out his strategies as quickly as ogy emphasised tenant patrols and showed
possible”.44 In an elegant framing, Rand tenants using the monitors. Historian Fritz
described the architect-planner: Umbach has claimed that some public housing
residents saw surveillance technology as “proof
He looks to the psychologist to redefine of their social dignity” in that they were
the moral status of life and death so that acquiring amenities that luxury housing
he may loosen the funds from industry possessed.47
and government to convert each
metropolis into a “Garden of Eden” in To demonstrate his success and gain further
accord with his utopic vision of the good projects, Newman led Department of Justice
life. experts, as well as members of other housing
authorities, through Bronxdale and other
The two never published a co-authored study, projects, demonstrating what he had been
but it seems that Rand was aware of his utility able to do for NYCHA. The housing authority
to Newman in receiving funding from the was no doubt happy about the grant money he
LEAA. After Rand left, Newman leveraged his brought in, but they were less pleased when
early success to grow his consulting practice, the study came out. Eventually, the relationship
eventually founding an Institute for Defensible between the architect and the housing
Space. He performed a study of CPTED for the authority deteriorated and the NYCHA chair-
Jersey City Housing Authority, where he was man Simeon Golar wrote to Mayor Lindsay
paid $15,000 to recommend hardening of saying: “Beyond considerable statistical and
locks, placement of officers in transparent, factual error, the book panders to hate and fear
bulletproof “booths”, the installation of inter- in the crassest possible manner, dishonestly
coms, better lighting, and the rearrangement of pretending to be a scholarly exercise and

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trading on professorial credentials”.48 He where other architectural consultants pub-

claimed the book was racist for its assessment lished short articles on best practices, and
of the success of the recently built Co-op City others did disciplinary work that spoke to a
as due to its “exclusively white, middle-class select few.
and elderly population”,49 pointing out that Co-
op City had been integrated from the start. To be economical is to be affordable, to
What had been a mutually beneficial relation- operate skilfully in a quasi-ecological system of
ship became antagonistic as Newman’s theory exchanges. Human territoriality, and Oscar
came out in popular form. It seems he could Newman’s popular account of defensible
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not please everyone. space, suggested an affordable, efficient

means of managing public housing through a
series of trade-offs that were hard to resist in an
Conclusion era of scarce public funding. Motivated by fears
large and small—the fear of crime, the fear of
Without the climate of fear of crime and scarce the “death” of Great American cities, and the
housing funds, Newman’s project to study fear of the failure of the modern housing
housing may have developed in another project—Newman and the housing authority
direction. Unlike architectural research pro- managers made decisions within the systems of
duced from within a stable bureaucracy, exchange open to them. Residents and housing
Newman took on an increasingly common authorities traded privacy for security, installing
role in the franchise-state economy where he a designed environment suited to private
acted as part researcher and part entrepreneur. territories in the hope that it would stall the
As outlined in Joy Rohde’s Armed With deterioration of public, urban life. Using the
Expertise, the American government increas- word economy in its more common sense,
ingly employed private social science contrac- national and geopolitical changes in economy
tors to study human populations for military produced an era of scarcity in housing
and civilian ends, threatening the principles of authorities—from the shrinking public subsidies
an open society.50 Rather than having a single for housing, education, and welfare to the
salary and a single mission, Newman paid for his decline in post-war affluence and the increasing
research through grants—such as the Law costs of “preventative” war in Vietnam. After
Enforcement grant—and through consulting all, designers, managers, and intellectuals
work, most often for housing authorities. require funding for their work and must find
Working closely with housing-authority clients, it within a specific economy: an emotional and
Newman came to understand their problems financial habitat.
and their budget and, similarly, during the
relationship he developed with Ruth at the The 1970s were a period of American history
LEAA, he familiarised himself with their that came to apply the idea of the market to all
priorities. Rather than being in a position to areas of social and political life, and the cultural
approve plans and dole out money, Newman implications of that shift are just being
needed to find work and to market his ideas to explored.51 A mood of scarcity increased the
clients. In addition to temperament, this may be attention that agencies paid to the manage-
the major reason that he crafted a popular ment of their resources and the creation of
book that resonated with a wide audience, landscapes of incentives. The literal landscape

351
 KNOBLAUCH

or designed environment reflected the new early and clear framing of this natural, social
mood formally as well as symbolically; for an foam, and for as long as its diagram remains the
idea like defensible space to gain popularity, it dominant social parable for architects and the
had to resonate in both dimensions. The public, it will compete with other such images
environment addressed a real problem (crime), that reflect a more trusting society based on
but also expressed a social discourse (private solidarity, rather than incentive.
property as natural and safe). As the critic
Robert Levit argues, the social parable
expressed in some early twenty-first century Acknowledgements
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architecture is that of a collection of individuals

with “a declining willingness or ability . . . to This work was supported by the National
imagine themselves in relationship to a social Science Foundation under Grant 1058671 and
whole”.52 Newman’s defensible space was an the Centre Canadien D’Architecture.

Notes

1. Jimenez Lai, Citizens of No Place: An Architectural 6. Newman, Defensible Space, 203.

Graphic Novel, New York: Princeton Architec-
tural Press, 2012, 7. 7. Erika Milam, “Men in Groups: Anthropology and
Aggression, 1965– 1975”, Osiris, 30 (Scientific
2. Martin Gansberg, “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Masculinities, Erika Milam and Robert A. Nye,
Call the Police”, The New York Times, 27 March eds), forthcoming, 2015.
1964, 1 – 2. According to Gansberg, one witness
called the police after the victim was dead, 8. Robert Ardrey, African Genesis: A Personal
hence the difference between 37 and 38. Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature
of Man, New York: Atheneum, 1961, 29.
3. The first buildings were demolished in March
1972 and large photographs were published in 9. Rober t Ardrey, The Territorial Imperative:
Life magazine on 14 April 1972. Defensible Space A Personal Inquiry into the Animal Origins of
appears to have been published in the fall, as the Property and Nations, New York: Atheneum,
earliest reviews are from October and Novem- 1966, 5.
ber 1972.
10. Ardrey, The Territorial Imperative, 210– 212.
4. Katharine G. Bristol, “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth”,
Journal of Architectural Education, 44, no. 3 11. Ardrey, African Genesis, 18. Ardrey argued that
(1991), 163 – 171, doi:10.2307/1425266; the only reason this finding remained obscure in
Nicholas Dagen Bloom, Public Housing That the 1930s was that a world divided by the
Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century, hope for a socialist future, the German pursuit
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, of Lebensraum, and the fear of a socialist
2008; The Pruitt-Igoe Myth [Film], directed by future had no interest in hearing that territori-
Chad Freidrichs et al., Columbia, MO: Unicorn ality and private proper ty were innate
Stencil, 2011; Rachel Manning, Mark Levine, and characteristics.
Alan Collins, “The Kitty Genovese Murder and
the Social Psychology of Helping: The Parable of 12. Marianna Torgovnick, Gone Primitive: Savage
the 38 Witnesses”, American Psychologist, 62, no. Intellects, Modern Lives, Chicago, IL: University
6 (September 2007), 555 –562. of Chicago Press, 1990.

5. Oscar Newman, Defensible Space: Crime Preven- 13. Newman, Defensible Space, 5.
tion through Urban Design, New York: Macmillan,
1972, dust jacket. 14. Newman, Defensible Space, 1.

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 ATR 19:3-14 THE ECONOMY OF FEAR

15. Newman, Defensible Space, 51. 24. Newman, CIAM ‘59 in Otterlo; and interview
with his wife, Kopper Newman, in Hensonville,
16. Aldo Van Eyck, “Kaleidoscope of the Mind”, Via, New York, 11 May 2012.
1, “Ecology in Design” (1968), 95. See also Aldo
Van Eyck, Paul Parin, and Fritz Morgenthaler, 25. Robert A. M. Stern (ed.), 40 Under 40: An
“Miracle of Moderation”, Via, 1, (1968), 96 – 124; Exhibition of Young Talent in Architecture, New
Aldo Van Eyck, “Image of Ourselves”, Via, 1 York: The Architectural League of New York and
(1968), 125– 129. The American Federation of the Arts, 1966.

17. Mark Crinson, “From Haifa to Stevenage”, 26. Oscar Newman, Park-Mall: Lawndale Report of
Keynote address, “Architecture and the State Stage Two of the Park Mall Study, St. Louis, MO:
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1940s to 1970s” conference at Columbia Urban Renewal Design Center, Washington

University GSAPP, 2 April 2010. University, 1968, n.p.

18. Eric Paul Mumford, The CIAM Discourse on 27. Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Institute for
Urbanism, 1928 – 1960, Cambridge, MA: MIT Architecture and Urban Studies Archives, Series
Press, 2000, 234. 2, Folder B1-4.

19. Translation: “In Africa, at the North Pole, in New 28. Alan Wolfe, The Limits of Legitimacy: Political
York or in France, the concept: Dwelling always Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism, New
dissolves into basic functions, moreover they are York: Free Press, 1977.
the same everywhere and always, determinate
elements”: Oscar Newman (ed.), CIAM ‘59 in 29. Thomas E. Cronin, U.S. v. Crime in the Streets,
Otterlo, Stuttgart: K. Kramer, 1961, 119. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981, 11.

20. John M. Darley and Bibb Latane, “Bystander 30. Alice O’Connor, Poverty Knowledge: Social
Intervention in Emergencies: Diffusion of Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth-
Responsibility”, Journal of Personality and Social Century U.S. History, Princeton, NJ: Princeton
Psychology, 8, no. 4, Part 1 (1968), 377– 383, University Press, 2001, 196– 210.
doi:10.1037/h0025589; Newman, Defensible
Space, 79. 31. Cronin, U.S. v. Crime in the Streets, 25. Despite
the increase in crime rate, many crimes were
21. Samuel Kaplan, “Defensible Space: Crime minor crimes, such as vandalism, or auto theft
Prevention Through Design Will Not Solve for purposes of juvenile joyriding.
Society’s Ills”, The New York Times, 29 April
1973, 16; R. I. Mawby, “Defensible Space: A 32. Nancy E. Marion, A History of Federal Crime
Theoretical and Empirical Appraisal”, Urban Control Initiatives, 1960 – 1993, Westport, CT:
Studies, 14, no. 2 (1 June 1977), 169– 179, Praeger, 1994, 9 (also Appendix showing
doi:10.1080/00420987720080321; Bill Hillier, repor ted crime rates from the Federal
“In Defense of Space”, Royal Institute of British Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime
Architects Journal, 80, no. 11 (1973), 539– 544. Reports rising from 1,861,261 in 1960 to
See the extended discussion of the graphs and 10,192,034 in 1974).
data used by Newman in Joy Knoblauch, “Going
Soft: Architecture and the Human Sciences in 33. Murray Lee, Inventing Fear of Crime: Criminology
Search of New Institutional Forms (1963 – and the Politics of Anxiety, Cullompton: Willan
1974)”, PhD dissertation, Princeton University, Publishing, 2007.
2012.
34. Malcolm Feeley, The Policy Dilemma: Federal
22. Peter Sloterdijk, “Foam City”, Log, 9 (January Crime Policy and the Law Enforcement Assistance
2007), 63 –76. Administration, Minneapolis: University of Min-
nesota Press, 1980.
23. Lindsay Miller, “Daily Closeup ‘Defensible
Space’”, New York Post, 20 December 1972, 35. Conversation with George Rand, 9 April 2010.
Series 01, Box 0088B4, Folder 03, La Guardia
and Wagner Archives. 36. Rand, 9 April 2010.

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 KNOBLAUCH

37. Lee Rainwater, Behind Ghetto Walls: Black Family 46. Report by Oscar Newman, New York City
Life in a Federal Slum, Chicago, IL: Aldine, 1970; Housing Authority Archives at the Folder:
and an earlier, well-known article, Lee Rainwater, J Christian; Secu-Repor ts; Secu System
“Fear and the House-as-Haven in the Lower Defensible Space Modifications to Eight Jersey
Class”, Journal of the American Institute of City Projects; Date (Range): August,
Planners, 32, no. 1 (1966), 23, doi:10.1080/ 1973 – October, 1975; Series: Chairman’s
01944366608978486. Rainwater may have been Files, Box 0088B2, Folder 06, The La Guardia
their connection with NIMH. He had received a and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community
grant for his study of Pruitt-Igoe, a five-year study College/The City University of New York.
at Washington University, in which Newman may
have participated. 47. Fritz Umbach, The Last Neighborhood Cops: The
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Rise and Fall of Community Policing in New York

38. “Stenographic Transcript of Proceedings, Design Public Housing, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
for Improving Safety in Residential Environ- University Press, 2010, 10.
ments”, 13 November 1969, 55, manuscript
from George Rand; hereafter “Design for 48. Letter from Simeon Golar to Mayor John
Improving Safety”. V. Lindsay, 4 January 1973, marked “unsent”.
Name: Christian Joseph J.; Series: Chairman’s
39. “Design for Improving Safety”, 139. Files, Box 0088B4, Folder 03.

40. “Design for Improving Safety”, 157. 49. Newman, Defensible Space, 18.

41. “Design for Improving Safety”, 158. 50. Joy Rohde, Armed with Expertise: The Militariza-
tion of American Social Research During the
42. “Design for Improving Safety,” 169. Cold War, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
2013.
43. Rand, 9 April 2010.
51. Daniel T. Rodgers, Age of Fracture, Cambridge,
44. George Rand, “What Psychology Asks of Urban MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University
Planning”, American Psychologist, 24, no. 10 Press, 2011; Michel Foucault, The Birth of
(October 1969), 933. Biopolitics: Lectures at the College De France,
1978 – 79, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan,
45. Rae Downes, “How to Make Housing 2004, 251 – 260; Jonathan Massey, “Risk
Projects Safe”, The Jersey Journal (9 February Design”, Aggregate, 4 October 2013, http://
1973) (NYU Archives, Bobst Library, New we-aggregate.org/piece/risk-design (accessed
York). Newman continued this consulting 13 May 2015).
through the 1980s, including acting as a
consultant on the matter of locating public 52. Robert A. Levit, “Contemporary ‘Ornament’:
housing in Yonkers. See Lisa Belkin, Show Me a The Return of the Symbolic Repressed”,
Hero, Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 2000. Harvard Design Magazine, no. 28 (2008), 73.

354