This paper finds a very strong correlation between layout type and all kinds of crime, with traditional street patterns (advocated by New Urbanism) the best, and the most ‘modern’ hierarchical layouts the worst. The results strongly indicate that rich and poor alike benefit from living in traditional streets. The paper offers some simple design guidance: join buildings together, avoid any kind of secondary access, make sure that all public spaces are continuously ‘constituted’ by dwelling entrances and maximise the intervisibility of these entrances by a linear rather than a broken up layout.