1
CJE3444 CRIME PREVENTION
Dr. E. Buchholz
Chapter 5
Neighborhood Crime Prevention
The key element that will reduce and prevent crime is the ability of the physical features to
enhance active surveillance, engender community cohesion and promote citizen action against
crime.
The effectiveness of CPTED may be altered by intervening factors such as social cohesion.
Neighborhood Crime Prevention
 Neighborhood crime prevention consists of techniques used to influence levels of crime
and fear of crime.
 The most important general strategy is citizen involvement.
Neighborhood Crime Prevention Efforts
 Neighborhood Block Water
 Community Anti-Drug Programs
 Citizen Patrol
 Police Community Involvement
Neighborhood Block Watch
 The basic goal of neighborhood crime prevention is increasing community awareness
and problem solving.
 Neighborhood Watch Groups:
- Discuss mutual problems
- Work to increase feelings of community
- Become additional support for police
- Build community cohesion
- Proactive
Shaw and McKay
 Many neighborhoods need to draw on resources from a variety of sources in an effort to build
social control
 Friendships
 Families
 Local businesses
 Churches
 Schools
 Interpersonal networks
Social control
 Heavy use of surveillance
 Ability to distinguish legitimate users of an area
 Members become eyes and ears for the police
 Most people just call on their neighbors to keep an eye on their home when they are away
2
Neighborhood Watch Participation
Neighborhood Watch Programs
 Citizen patrols
 Whistle stop programs
 Education programs
 Neighborhood advocacy
 Neighborhood clean-up
 Physical design changes
 Property identification
 Operation Identification most common
 Escort services
 Whistle stop
 Phone chains
 Court watch
 Hiring guards
 Organized surveillance
Neighborhood Watch Participation
The most common activity among groups:
 Operation Identification (81% of the programs)
 Security surveys (68%)
 Crime hotlines (38%)
 Block parenting (27%)
 Improving street lighting (35%) and physical environmental concerns (38%)
 Can also include travel companions, victim assistance programs, and phone chains
Community Anti-Drug Programs
 Fueled by inner city cocaine and crack use
 Defensible Space & Broken Windows theory in action
 Aid police in high drug areas
 Patrol streets
 Clean up efforts
Citizens Patrol
 Active surveillance
 Citizens patrols place more people on the streets.
 Participants do not actively approach criminals but report activity to the police
 Can be both foot and mobile patrol
 The Guardian Angels are the most well known citizen patrol
Police-Community Involvement
 Police are traditionally seen as the initiators and/or leaders of neighborhood watch and
other programs
 The National Night Out is one of the largest programs
Organizes neighborhoods, provides educational information, handouts, and more importantly
social events to promote community cohesion and familiarity with the police department
3
Evaluation
 The impact on crime verses the impact on community cohesion
 Usually, for an effective strategy you can’t have one without the other
Evaluation
 Outcome measures range from simple documentation of existing groups and numbers of
participants to some statement about the quality of individual involvement.
Evaluation Concerns
Do not measure how many
 people regularly attend crime prevention meetings;
 heed the advice they are given; or
 do more than simply show up at the meetings.
Evaluation Concerns
 Typically report positive results, such as neighborhood improvements
o Many improvements are subsidized by funds from the government
o Completed by paid workers form outside the area
 Results are mixed
 Community cohesion appears to be unaffected by neighborhood watch programs
Crime Evaluation
 Reduce levels of crime, particularly property crime
 Only interpersonal crime will be reduced (private, in home crimes, are difficult to detect)
 Most studies depict a positive evaluation for neighborhood programs
 Initial programs should produce increased crime rates (because of increased calls) but this
should dissipate over time
Examples
 Kirkholt and Safer Cities Models:
 Kirkholt Burglary Prevention project consisted of
Removal of pre-payment heating fuel meters in homes
Improved physical security devices
Use of community teams to conduct security surveys
“cocoon neighborhood watch”
Examples
Safer Cities Program consisted of
 Target hardening
 Property marking
 Community mobilization
 Use of signs and other media
 Neighborhood watch activity
Examples
 Kirkholt and Safer Cities Models:
 Both studies resulted in a reduction of crime when neighborhood programs were
introduced
 Results were aided by increased personal prevention methods
4
 Displacement to surrounding areas was minimal
 The key to successful crime prevention activities appears to lie with program
implementation.
Anti-Drug Programs
 Physical design changes
 Surveillance
 Group meetings
 Phone hotlines for anonymous reporting
 Enforcement of zoning and housing codes

Result in increased levels of social cohesion
Citizen Patrols
 Citizen patrols can be effective at reducing both crime and fear
Community Cohesion
 Studies depict upwards of 60% participation at times
 Acceptance of police increases
 For some, community cohesion increases
 However, some studies depict familiarity with residents and oral discussion fail to
increase
 Increased community cohesion appears to be inconclusive, and at best a bi-product of
neighborhood watch programs
Prevention and Fear of Crime
“An emotional response of dread or anxiety or symbols that a person associates with crime.”
Recent studies place the level of fear of crime in society at roughly 40-50%
Prevention and Fear of Crime
 Studies (see p. 94) regarding burglary and drugs, as well as studies involving the elderly have
shown reductions in fear.
 Additional studies have depicted a reduction in fear of certain crimes, but an increase in fear
of walking alone.
 However, one’s definition of “fear” is hard to define across studies.
Citizen Participate & Crime Prevention
 Who Participates?
 Males, predominately white
 Middle to Upper Class
 Educated
 Home owners
- What is the problem with these statistics?
Citizen Participate & Crime Prevention
 Those who participate tend to be “joiners”
 Have higher feelings of responsibility toward the community than nonparticipants
 Find their way into CP groups from associations within other social organizations
 Success is often determined by strength of leadership within the group
5
Organizing Prevention Efforts
 A number of obstacles inhibit the organization of neighborhoods:
 Few opportunities to participate
 Lack of crime or motivation
 Areas which need the most help, often high crime, inner city neighborhoods, tend to have
less enthusiasm about participation
Assumptions of Neighborhood Watch
Summary
 Those who have more at risk participate more
 Lower class neighborhoods have the least success at implementing programs
 Fear of crime, especially in high crime areas, may actually hinder crime prevention
efforts by neighborhoods
Summary of Crime Prevention
End of Chapter 5