Territoriality and Residential Crime - A Conceptual Framework (From Environmental Criminology, P 55-76, 1981, Paul J Brantingham and Patricia L Brantingham, ed. - See NCJ-87681)

• NCJ Number: 87683
• Author(s): B B Brown; I Altman
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A model which builds on Oscar Newman's theory of defensible space focuses on the types of environmental and behavioral information which burglars seek in order to arrive at decisions regarding the territorial nature of an area.

Abstract

The model also uses Altman's ideas regarding privacy, according to which privacy is a central construct concerned with the regulation of boundaries between the self and others. Territoriality is one of several mechanisms used to aid control over privacy. Other mechanisms are verbal, nonverbal, and cultural styles of behavior. Altman also defines primary, secondary, and public territories in terms of qualities of their occupancy. Two other dimensions which distinguish these types of territories are the intent with which owners mark a territory and the range, type, and mix of markers that are used in various territories. A further dimension is owner reaction to invasion or intrusion of a territory. The interaction of all these dimensions means that neighborhoods, streets, sites, and houses may communicate different degrees of territoriality to outsiders. The more an area communicates a public territorial quality, the greater the probability of a burglary. A potential burglar goes through a sequential decisionmaking process involving assessment about the permeability of various boundaries in the residential environment. Thus, the potential burglar examines the neighborhood, site, and individual house in terms of five factors: detectability of an intruder, actual barriers, symbolic barriers like neighborhood association signs, traces of territorial users, and signs that residents have a shared concern for an area. In addition to these internal factors related to the decisionmaking process, external variables like the characteristics of the burglars and potential payoff of a burglary influence the ultimate decision. References are listed in a bibliography containing 380 sources and located at the end of the volume containing this paper.