Utilising urban gamification for sustainable crime prevention in public spaces: A citizen participation model for designing against vandalism

Abstract

In order to create secured urban spaces, public safety need to be considered as the duty of citizens as well as official authorities. Therefore, this research focuses on the social environment of public spaces and how to encourage citizens to take prompt actions to detect, report and deter any illegal activities. Moreover, graffiti is considered as the most common type of vandalism worldwide that threatens not only our public and private properties, but also our social environment. In order to resolve the problem of graffiti, this research examines current citizen participation model applied by different stakeholders in Fukuoka City in Japan. Current model has been illustrated based on several in-depth interviews conducted with different stakeholders and citizens in Fukuoka City. Then, a new model has been proposed based on urban gamification to encourage more citizens to act as passive observers in public spaces. Proposed model has been evaluated by local communities and city hall to understand its potentials. This research found out that proposed model has the potentials to encourage more citizens to be part of the solution by being more active in public spaces. However, few obstacles regarding budget and administration might stand in the way of achieving such a concept.