NCJ Number
86221
Date Published
1982
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study analyzes aspects of a Seattle community crime prevention program, selected crime prevention leaflets, and results from a Toronto residential security survey to determine the most effective anti-burglary measures.
Abstract
Seattle's Community Crime Prevention Program used property identification, security hardware, and block watch to counter residential burglary. In Toronto, over 1,500 residences were surveyed, including victims and nonvictims, in conjunction with a study of over 5,000 police records and a nonsystematic sample of burglars to determine factors that make residences more or less vulnerable to burglary. Of the major measures advocated to reduce burglary, 'occupancy proxy' appears to reduce residential burglary most consistently. This involves residents either actually being home a significant amount of time or taking steps to make it appear that the house is occupied through such steps as having newspaper delivery and mail stopped during prolonged absences from the home, as well as providing timed lighting. Block Watch for detached or row housing has sound evidence to support its effectiveness in reducing burglary. Visible security symbols are questionable for single houses and should not be the mainstay of any program to reduce crime. On the other hand, guards for high-rise housing seem highly effective, if the residents themselves do not burglarize apartments. Burglary can be reduced in urban areas by ensuring that upper class and lower class neighborhoods do not adjoin one another. High crime rates will then be concentrated among the disadvantaged unless there are major crime prevention initiatives or large numbers of habitual offenders are arrested and incarcerated for long periods. Forty-three notes and 31 references are listed.