Crowd Safety Expert Helps Create Safer Places

UNLV professor uses crime science to head off chaos in public spaces.

Tamara Madensen-Herold, a UNLV criminal justice professor, dissects environments and human interactions for clues on how to create safe spaces.

A blend of criminology, psychology, and design, Madensen-Herold’s work within the university’s Greenspun College of Urban Affairs centers on the impact of physical and social place characteristics on human behavior. Her goal as director of UNLV's new Crowd Management Research Council is to bridge the gap between theory and practice to help craft "safe spaces" that due to design, management, and other factors are less likely to become sites of violence.

Madensen-Herold’s work in the field began when she was a Ph.D. student soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Her work since has focused on prevention strategies that make it more difficult for offenders to engage in crime and disorder.

She partners with police departments and security groups around the country to assess the impact of specific place characteristics on crowd behavior and safety.

Quotes from Tamara Madensen-Herold

"Crime scientists study places — the way that they’re designed and managed and how these factors influence human behavior. We look for ways to manipulate environments in order to create safe spaces.”

“We work with police departments and cities to disrupt crime opportunities in specific areas. We remove the place networks that offenders use to engage in illegal activities. Illegal enterprises need locations to operate — by removing access to or altering the dynamics within particular places, you make it more difficult for offenders to commit violence and other types of crime."

Learn more about Madensen-Herold here: https://www.unlv.edu/news/expert/tamara-d-madensen-herold