NCJ Number
79885
Journal
Tijdschrift voor criminologie Volume: 22 Dated: (September/October 1981) Pages: 197-214
Date Published
1980
Length
18 pages
Annotation
The study discusses the willingness of the public to take crime-preventive measures and evaluates the effectiveness of a Dutch national media campaign in 1977 and 1978 to encourage such preventive measures among the general populace.
Abstract
Dutch and foreign studies indicate that public willingness to take preventive measures is dependent on individuals' estimate of the risk to themselves and on their own experiences as victims. The highest social classes are most willing and the lowest social classes least willing to take preventive measures. This is the result of attitudes based on knowledge on one hand and of fixed, internalized social norms on the other. A cognitively oriented prevention campaign could thus be expected to produce the best results. Consequently, the media campaign in 1977 and 1978 focused on specific measures to combat particular offenses, especially pickpocketing, theft from automobiles, and burglary. Assessment of the campaign's success indicates that both individuals expressed intention of taking preventive measures and actual preventive steps taken increased in the years of the campaign. Unfortunately, the positive effects were not uniform for all segments of the society: groups with the highest objective risk and the highest actual rate of recent victimization; i.e., the lower social classes and youthful residents of big cities were least likely to respond. Nevertheless, the campaign produced a lower risk of victimization among individuals who followed the recommended crime-preventive measures and produced a stabilization of or drop in petty crimes. However, no reduction of risk to individuals who did not take preventive measures or overall dampening effect on crime rates were observed. Tables, notes and a 25-item bibliography are supplied.