Target Hardening

Introduction

Target hardening is a high effectively method of restricting criminal opportunity by creating physical barriers that offenders must overcome in order to a commit crime (Clarke 1997). Creating physical barriers will reduce an offender’s motivation to commit crime by increasing the effort required and reducing the appeal of the rewards, thus deterring the offender (Burke 2014; Lee 2010 and Clarke 1992). In Starley Cross target hardening will be used to tackle burglary, theft and vandalism. These are the methods we shall use:

Installing New Locks

We shall be installing new locks on all the properties in the Manor Estate, where the housing conditions are extremely poor and crime rates are higher than any other area. The new locks we shall install are:

Research by Tseloni et al. (2016) influenced our decision to use these three devices. In the study the effectiveness of different anti-burglary devices was measured (Tseloni et al. 2016). The results from the study showed that houses with all three locks (pictured above) were 20 times less likely to be burgled compared to houses with no security features, suggesting they are an effective deterrent (Tseloni et al. 2016).

Anti-Graffiti Coating

Potential Issues

An issue which could arise from implementing target hardening strategies is that it may create a “fortress society” (Clarke 1997). The term fortress society describes a place where people become so fearful of becoming victims of crime that they barricade themselves in their properties using target hardening measures (Clarke 1997). This will create a social divide as people isolate themselves and become untrusting of others for fear of crime (Clarke 1997).