Designing Defensible Spaces in Large Cities. Outlooks for Polish Urban Areas

Disappointment with low effectiveness of resocialization and the crime rates in American cities led to formulation of alternative theories concerningcrime prevention. One of these theories – the Defensible Space concept created by Oscar Newman, was based on the assumption that urban design can create suitable conditions for increase in crime or, on the contrary – prevent illegal acts from happening. The goal of this article is to analyse the concept of Defensible Space and the main factors conditioning its creation, as well as the possibility of implementing Newman’s postulates in Polish urban environment.