URBAN-PLANNING AND RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY OUTCOMES

Crime disorder, and fear can erode the hearts of neighborhoods and cit ies and undo the best efforts of planners, but planners typically have not made crime central to their concerns. This paper examines the cri me of burglary, which may appear to be benign relative to the more vio lent forms of crime in the United States, but in its consequences for victims can be quite severe. Since burglars use features of the enviro nment to increase their payoffs while reducing their risks, planners c an help to thwart them. The burglary process unfolds in phases, and ca n be interrupted by the offender at any point at which the information available to the burglar at that point does not satisfy his criteria as to the ratio of risk versus reward. The research reported on here e xamines the phase where the burglar has already selected a house as a target and has begun the attempt to enter it. Whether the burglary is completed or aborted was found to be associated with neighborhood diso rganization and home occupancy; other factors assumed to be important at this phase of the process, such as burglar alarms, extra locks on d oors, etc., did not prove to be so. Neighborhood disorganization and h ome occupancy are both sensitive to programs and variables influenced by planners, Through trying to understand and control burglary, planne rs can develop approaches that will enable them to help deal with othe r forms of crime as well.