Prevention of Residential Burglary

Residential burglary is considered to be a severe crime for both material and financial losses. Consequently, robbery has caused psychological upsets to the victims hence; there is a need to come up with strategies to prevent these cases from happening. For the past six months, 20 burglaries occurred in the local neighborhood. Watch programs have not been installed in this community yet. During the day, 17 of the 20 robberies have been reported, and there was a possibility of more than one suspect. When these incidents occurred, older adults were at home and asleep. Moreover, there is a possibility that these burglaries also happen during the working hours when residents are not around.

Prevention Strategies and Safety Tips

For the community residents to be safe, it is crucial for them to implement some burglary preventive strategies. Long-term strategies such as social welfare policies can be of help. With these strategies, residents can work together to address this problem. Firstly, installation of neighborhood watch programs would be a wise strategy since members of the community will be able to view over each other's places and in case of any suspicious activity they can report to the police. Similarly, the cocoon is another watch program which allows people to pay attention to the properties of their immediate neighbors'. This doesn't have to be necessarily the whole community but just people around each other (Winchester, 1982).

This neighborhood is already suffering from social disorganization. Hence, it's not efficient enough in the high-crime when residents watch over each other's properties with these programs. Nevertheless, when neighbors are at home neighborhood watch can work better. Additionally, security cameras and burglar alarms can be combined to work together. Some approaches such as installing monitored alarm systems would also work around this local neighborhood since they produce audible warnings which can easily scare away the intruders (Winchester, 1982).

Residents of that neighborhood are supposed to be advised to lock up their doors and windows before leaving their homes, especially when they are going on a vacation or going far away from home. Unlocked gates, windows, or even garage doors will allow entry into their properties. Double-cylinder deadbolt locks can be installed on the doors so that burglars won't be able to break the glass to open their doors from the outside (Portland State University, 2010).

Presence of shrubs and trees in the neighborhood could be the cause of these burglaries since they use them as hiding places. Hence, they should be trimmed down. Getting a dog is also a good strategy because their barking will attract the attention of the neighbors and this can easily scare away burglars. The elderly should as well be warned of answering or opening doors for strangers.

For the residents to protect their home when they are away, they should at least consider contacting the nearby police department to inform them about the watch program, that is if it is installed in the house. This will apply mostly in the cases where no one is around or able to check the premises daily. When residents are around the neighborhood, they can ensure that all locks are functioning correctly, they should also to keep items which are valuable away from the passers-by (Sorensen, 2003).

In conclusion, long-term strategies such as social welfare policies and watch programs can be implemented to lower cases of burglaries.

References

Portland State University. (2010). Prevention of residential burglary. Criminology and Criminal Justice Senior Capston. Retrieved from http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/ccj_capstone

Sorensen, D. (2003). The nature and prevention of residential burglary. Denmark's Ministry of Justice.

Winchester, S. (1982). Residential Burglary: the limits of prevention. Head of the Research and Planning Unit.