Oscar Newman (architect)

Oscar Newman (30 September 1935 – 14 April 2004) was a Canadian-born American architect and researcher most known for his defensible space theory, a precursor to crime prevention through environmental design.

[1] As defined in Newman's book Design Guidelines for Creating Defensible Space (1972), defensible space is "a residential environment whose physical characteristics—building layout and site plan—function to allow inhabitants themselves to become key agents in ensuring their security.

"[2] The theory argues that an area is safer when people feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for that piece of a community.

Newman asserts that "the criminal is isolated because his turf is removed" when each space in an area is owned and cared for by a responsible party.

"[4] Newman started his academic career as the assistant professor at the Nova Scotia Technical College in Halifax (1961–1963), followed by a brief period at the University of Montreal (1963–1964) and moved on to the Washington University in St. Louis, where he started his work on defensible space principles of architecture as an associate professor of architecture, leaving university for New York in 1968, four years prior to publication of his main work, "Design Guidelines for Creating Defensible Space".