Purpose: As the population of Sweden is increasing, cities are growing and more residential areas have to be built. For a residential area to function well, it is important that people feel safe living in it. A great responsibility lies therefore on the municipalities and property owners to work for a high level of public safety at all stages. The aim of this study is to investigate how safer residential areas can be made with urban planning. This study is based on the residential area Råslätt, the municipality of Jönköping and the property owner of Råslätt, Vätterhem.

Method: In order to achieve the objectives of the study, quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The researchers carried out an analysis of the residential area Råslätt, where six aspects based on the literature studies were evaluated. In order to clarify the work towards higher public safety, interviews were accomplished at Jönköping Municipality and the property owner Vätterhem. A survey was lastly conducted among a selection of residents, to investigate their view on public safety of the area.

Findings: The case study showed that a collaboration between Jönköping Municipality and Vätterhem was implemented but could have been better in order to improve the work for increased safety. In the residential area of Råslätt all of the buildings were of the same character, which affected the ability to orientate. The result of the area analysis also showed that many aspects of Råslätt can be improved for a higher security. The residents of Råslätt mostly experienced the residential area as overall safe, but that some improvements could be done mainly with outdoor lighting, traffic networks and maintenance.

Implications: The conclusion was that there are a lot of work that both the municipality and property owner can do to influence the safety of a residential area in general. Above all, a large focus of the safety work should lay on the early stages of urban planning, since that is when building volumes, traffic systems and size of green areas can be influenced. It is also possible to increase the perceived safety at later stages, which also are highly relevant to the public safety.

Limitations: The thesis has been limited to examine only one selected residential area. Different aspects that where linked to safety in urban planning have been used as a base of the thesis, and the number of aspects were limited to six. The study has only investigated the goal and visions for safety in residential areas of Jönköping Municipality and the property owner Vätterhem.