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Residential Burglary and the Community Response (From Coping With Burglary, P 97-130, 1984, Ronald Clark and Tim Hope, eds. - See NCJ-101397)

NCJ Number
101403
Author(s)
R M Titus
Date Published
1984
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This report describes antiburglary community activities, reviews factors in citizens' participation in burglary prevention, outlines how to organize community crime prevention programs, and discusses aspects of program design and impact.
Abstract
Antiburglary community activities include block watch, security surveys, property marking, citizen patrols, citizen alerts, business and service group efforts, and local government policies and services. Individual participants in such activities are characterized by higher income, children at home, longer residency, homeownership, and being black. Suburban neighborhoods tend to be more proactive. Community design may also have some effect on residents' crime prevention participation. Organizing a community crime prevention response includes a demographic analysis of the community, an identification of existing community organizations, and the development of procedures to get and keep people involved. Factors affecting program design are the degree of comprehensiveness required, the type of leadership used, community problems, and the police role. Evaluation research indicates that both discrete and comprehensive programs which meet certain criteria have been effective in reducing crime, increasing neighborhood cohesiveness, and improving citizen-police cooperation. A chart shows the evaluation results from particular programs throughout the country. 96 references.