Violence Prevention through Environmental Design: Enabling Secure, Preserve, Fight Active Shooter Strategy through Design

Linda Nubani Michigan State University

In addition to the rising number of workplace violence against physicians and staff, shootings have become a serious concern. Although they are considered rare events, there has been an average of 14 shootings a year in healthcare facilities from 2000-2015 (Gao and Adashi, 2015). Twenty two percent of these shootings occur inside Emergency Departments. The majority of these shootings were committed because of a grudge where 20 % of the victims were hospital staff members.

The four objectives of this part of the symposium are: First, it explains two theories that dominated the criminology literature since 1960s, these are the rational choice theory and the routine activity theory. Both of these theories offer framework for understanding individual decisions made by perpetrators. The rational choice theory assumes that criminals weigh risks and benefits in their decisions to commit crimes while the routine activity theory assumes that the absence of capable guardianship influence criminal’s decisions to carry their act. These theories overlap in connecting place characteristics to presenting the opportunities the perpetrators are looking for to commit their crimes. Second, the study seeks to identify the place characteristics that offer low levels of guardianship whether indoor or outdoor. Third, it attempts to review levels of guardianship at a small sample of Emergency Departments that encountered these shooting incidents. Finally, it presents recommendations on how to enhance level of guardianship in Emergency Departments.

Results of this exploratory study suggest the need for establishing Violence Prevention through Environmental Design (VPTED) guidelines that are important in enabling Secure, Preserve, Fight Active Shooter strategies in EDs.