Government funding for Design Against Crime

The Design Council has been awarded a Home Office grant of £400 000 to develop the Design Against Crime campaign, which urges design professionals and students to consider the role design plays in crime prevention.

The aim of the initiative is to “reduce crime and help Britain achieve a competitive advantage in the design field, by embedding crime prevention in all its work”, says Professor Mike Press, head of design research at Sheffield Hallam University.

The Design Council is working closely with Sheffield Hallam and the University of Salford on the project.

The next stage of the Design Against Crime initiative follows research undertaken this year among designers on how best to incorporate crime prevention into design. These include product design group Seymour Powell, which has developed home security systems and anti-theft systems for motorbikes, and AMX’s Malcolm Garrett, who was consulted about security on-line.

“The research has identified the extent to which crime prevention is taken on board by designers – and it is nowhere near enough,” says Press.