Television Surveillance and Crime Prevention - Evaluating an Attempt To Create Defensible Space in Public Housing (A Methodological Review) (From Link Between Crime and the Built Environment, Volume 2, P C452-C460, 1980, by Tetsuro Motoyama et al - See NCJ-79544)

• NCJ Number: 79584
• Author(s): T Motoyama; S Shore; H Rubenstein; P Hartjens
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 9 pages
• Corporate Author: American Institutes for Research
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Available on microfiche from NCJRS as NCJ-79544.

Annotation

This review assesses the study by M.C. Musheno, J.P. Levine, and D.J. Palumbo that evaluated the crime-deterrence effectiveness of electronic surveillance equipment (cameras and microphones) in hallways and elevators of public housing.

Abstract

The study used three experimental buildings and three control buildings in the same public housing complex. Residents of the experimental and control sites were interviewed before and after the installation of the surveillance equipment. The interviews obtained data on victimization, attitudes, and behavior so that the impact of the treatment (installation of the surveillance equipment) could be assessed. The study found that (1) the difference between the pretest and posttest crime rates for the experimental buildings was so small that the surveillance equipment could not be concluded to have reduced crime; (2) there was no significant difference in resident attitudes about crime after the experiment; (3) only 14 percent of the respondents used the equipment, and no tenant had observed a crime on the closed-circuit television; and (4) although 69 percent of the respondents claimed they used the system, only 14 percent of the respondents used the monitoring device at least once a day. While the evaluation shows that the program was a failure, each of the conclusions and the results are compromised by the small sample size, the short evaluation period, and the failure to use sensitive (scaled) measurement instruments. The study report does provide a discussion of substantive issues of defensible space theory based on the empirical findings. For the original report, see NCJ 56285.