CRJ 3440 Chapter 5 Lecture.docx - Austin Peay State...

Austin Peay
State University
CRJ 3440: Crime Prevention
Chapter Five: Neighborhood Crime Prevention
Learning Objectives for Chapter:
1. Demonstrate your knowledge of neighborhood watch and the types of
activities found in neighborhood watch programs
2. Define Community Anti-Drug programs and their impact
3. Discuss citizen patrols and their crime prevention capabilities
4. Talk about the impact of neighborhood crime prevention on crime and
fear
5. Provide an overview of the impact of neighborhood crime prevention
on crime and fear
6. Discuss the Kirkholt Burglary Prevention program and its impact
7. Explain the Safer Cities program and its impact
8. List problems and issues that hamper the evaluation of neighborhood
crime prevention programs
9. Talk about who participates in neighborhood crime prevention
10. Provide reasons for the divergent findings on who participates
in crime prevention
11. Discuss research findings on domains of crime prevention
12. Outline the five problematic assumptions underlying
neighborhood watch
Lecture Notes
We early on defined crime prevention as any action designed to reduce
actual levels of crime and/or the perceived fear of crime. In the previous
chapter we examined the physical environment of crime and how changes
to that environment can impact crime and fear of crime. We noted that one
of the common themes for all the devices mentioned was the need for

citizen participation and involvement. The study of such involvement is the
topic for this chapter.
The Study of Involvement
Lab opens this chapter with a discussion of the “failure” of physical or
environmental design to always reduce actual crime or the fear of crime.
To me, at least, this is not a failure but an unrealistic expectation of the
design devices. As stated in the last lecture notes, physical devices can
create a false sense of security, resulting in people not becoming involved
personally. People are not motivated to take action or do something. But
in our reading about physical design we also saw that a common theme of
successful crime prevention efforts included social cohesion, a communal
spirit. That same caveat can be applied to neighborhood crime prevention.
The bottom line, then, is that there is no singular panacea as crime
prevention requires a combination of efforts.
This requirement of multiple efforts is graphically displayed in Figure 5.1,
reproduced here and taken from page 84 of the text.

Analysis of Conceptual Framework
In the column labeled “Strategies” we see the variations and the need for
both devices and participation. The need for these multiple efforts is seen
as the intervening factors. Another factor I have noted is that of criminal
motivation. A determined thief can and will overcome physical devices.