A 3.5 x 9-Inch Door Hanger Placed on Houses Reduced Certain Property Crimes

This pilot study randomly assigned six neighbourhoods within a municipal police region to either an intervention or control condition. Following a burglary in an intervention neighbourhood, the community response team distributed door hangers with crime prevention tips, an overview of research on repeat victimization risk, and related information to the affected home and surrounding homes within a football field’s distance of the affected house. While there were non-significant decreases in the targeted crime type (burglaries), total Part 1 property crimes and thefts significantly decreased in “intervention” neighbourhoods relative to “control” neighbourhoods. This “super-cocooning” strategy informed the community about crime activity in the area and may have empowered affected residents to protect their property, lock-down valuables, and provide guardianship to the neighbourhood. Leveraging community-oriented specialized units instead of patrol officers to distribute information to the community may reduce patrol officer workload, support agencies in combatting property crime, and affect criminal opportunity structures.