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| Certification in CPTED comes down to some essential learning and practical skills - it all begins with reading and studying |
by Mateja Mihinjac
When working with clients in SafeGrowth we often get asked: “How do I know what CPTED expert I should hire?”
Our response: “Make sure their expertise is certified by an independent and widely recognized third-party professional organisation.”
In practice, this is not so black and white. Many consultants claim they have knowledge or experience practicing Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). It is not uncommon to have CPTED consultants self-proclaim themselves “CPTED experts” after entering the job market directly from University, with no practical experience in the field.
Other consultants are well-seasoned individuals who have been practicing in the field for years and convince themselves they know everything there is to know about CPTED. They don’t read, write, or publish in technical or scientific journals about CPTED. Consequently, they provide the same simple CPTED advice throughout their career with little reference to recent research or modifications to CPTED theory.
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| Assessing the same environment at night and day - an essential data collection skill for the competent CPTED practitioner |
Class learning or field experience? Neither group is populated by the best example of competent CPTED expertise. This arises due to several reasons:
- College/university education might provide foundational knowledge (theoretical understanding, how to collect and analyse data). While it is important to have advanced knowledge, that alone will not work without considerable practical experience. In the real world of preventing crime, theory cannot function without practice, and vice versa.
- CPTED experience might help a practitioner understand a problem, the environment, or how people behave. However, a CPTED practitioner should never believe they know everything due to their experience. There are many cases when past experience does not explain changes in offending behaviour or prevention methods. Theories evolve to respond to those social changes and only by keeping up with recent findings and new theories can a practitioner truly master the complex field called CPTED.
All experts must constantly refresh themselves with new theoretical concepts. Our physical, social, and administrative environments change as society changes. That means crime and safety threats evolve. CPTED theory, policies, and other legal and regulatory documents must evolve to reflect those changes. That means a competent CPTED expert constantly reads, attends conferences, and writes about such things.
That leads to an obvious question: How can we ensure CPTED consultants possess the knowledge, skills, and experiential abilities needed in the field?
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| Outdoor research tours are an essential ingredient for CPTED training |
CPTED CERTIFICATION FOR INDIVIDUALS - ICCP
This year the ICCP (ICA’s CPTED Certification Program for Individuals) is 20 years old.
Those unfamiliar with professional certification sometimes confuse the content of CPTED with the practice of CPTED. While theory and practice are interconnected, the primary measure of the certified expert is their competency in how they practice CPTED. That is obviously reflected in their background knowledge, what ICCP terms core subjects. This places the ICCP as a competency-based certification program.
On the ICA’s website, the ICCP is described as:
“Certification in the field of one's choosing is a way of indicating to yourself that you have arrived. You have achieved a level of expertise … Certifications provide a raised bar to which those new to the field can strive. Certification also serves to lock out charlatans claiming to be "trained" or "certified" by merely attending a course or taking a test.“
The competency units within the ICCP program are on the website.
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| The International CPTED Association website hosts the ICCP Certification Program information. It also lists additional learning resources like webinars and guidebooks |
PROFESSIONALISING THE FIELD
While CPTED doesn’t need the same level of certification as medical and engineering professions, CPTED does respond to personal threats to property and lives. These are important matters and the ICA is pleased to have contributed to the advancement of CPTED over the past decades.
All this has led to exciting new initiatives:
GLOBAL CPTED STANDARDS
Another movement forward, that certified professionals must know, is that CPTED now has its own European Standards and international ISO Standards.
CPTED-GRANTS
Many CPTED-related grant proposals in North America now require a certified CPTED professional on the submission team.
EXPERT WITNESSES IN COURT
CPTED experts, including ICA CPTED-certified members, are now regularly called as expert witnesses in criminal and civil trials.
COURSE ACCREDITATION
In 2019 the ICA launched an accompanying program – the Course Accreditation Program (CAP) – to accredit CPTED courses that teach the KSAs – the knowledge, skills, and abilities of novice CPTED practitioners.
As such, CAP offers an accelerated pathway towards obtaining CPTED certification. One example is our SafeGrowth program which is CAP-accredited and several graduates have already successfully pursued the ICCP.
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| CAP accredited CPTED courses include urban design sessions |
WHAT IS A CERTIFIED CPTED EXPERT?
It is reasonable to ask why CPTED warrants a professional-level certification. As you can see from the discussion above, a competent CPTED professional knows that their decisions can prevent crime and their recommendations impact people’s quality of life. They can save lives. Those recommendations come with equity and ethical implications.
In some cases, those recommendations might even mean the difference between life and death. Certification matters!
