Evaluation of Crime and Safety in Lagos Metropolitan Parks

The principle of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) was applied to examine the fear of crime on park users at selected urban parks in Lagos State, Nigeria. The objectives were to evaluate the types of security measures, as well as the types and frequency of crime in urban parks.Incidental sampling technique was employed to gather information from 300 patrons in the parks. In addition, site observations, crime mapping, and interviews with park users as well as managers were used to collect data. Descriptive statistical methods were used for data analysis.Findings revealed that the parks had very few crime generators. In addition, low levels of crime occurrences were observed due to the physical settings and their locations within the city. Although the majority of the park users (90.4%) felt safe in the parks, they still had fear of crime relating to crimes that they had experienced somewhere apart from the parks under study.The study concluded that security-related environmental design attributes had a significant effect on the users’ safety perception of the parks. Suggestions on how to improve safety conditions in the parks were made.