Security expert witness Randy I. Atlas, Ph.D., AIA CPP, vice-president of Atlas Safety and Security Design, Inc. writes:
It has been estimated that as much as 40 percent of rapes and assaults take place in parking lots. Major errors in the design and operation of parking facilities arise from the mind-set that these are merely stables for vehicles and not places where human behavior occurs. Among the resulting problems from this shortsighted design approach can be an environment with numerous hiding spaces, as well as poor visibility created by high walls, structural columns, and multiple levels. Even worse, subsurface or underground parking facilities often include no outside visibility.
Parking areas can avoid these problems if they use the precepts of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). With CPTED, for example, criminals can be made to see parking areas as places where they will be observed and where suspicious behavior will be challenged, making it not worth the risk and effort.