CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or Crime-free, Safe and Impenetrable?

By Katrina Boydon (kboydon@quinstreet.com)

Has your home ever been the scene of a crime investigation? Or, are you quite sure your property, and everyone in it, is safe and secure from criminal intentions? Government data gathered over the last several decades is encouraging, showing that crime rates are decreasing. However, this should not lead to complacency in securing your home. In 2000, seven and a quarter million people in the United States were victims of property crimes, including breaking and entering with intention to commit a felony or larceny-theft.

The Good News: Crime is in decline
According to the US Department of Justice, there has been a steady decline in property crime and household burglaries over the last thirty years. In addition, a recent home security survey shows that more households are installing alarms, with 17.8% of all homes alarmed in 2000, compared to 7% in 1988. This is probably no coincidence. FBI studies indicate that homes with professionally fitted and monitored security systems are fifteen times less likely to be burglarized. Insurance companies are often willing to discount premiums by 20% for households with alarms, and a prominent display of your home's alarm facilities is usually enough to deter eight out of ten would-be intruders.

The Bad News: Victims still remain
Conversely, properties without a security system are fifteen times more likely to be burglarized. Over eighty-five percent of all burglaries are successful, with less than fifteen percent of reported burglaries resulting in an arrest. Fifteen percent of house-owners still suffer a property crime of some description each year. This means that you, or someone you know, have almost certainly been the victim of a property crime over the last year. US Department of Justice data shows that of all burglaries in the United States, 62.5% occurs in residential properties. Further, rented households are burglarized at rates nearly 80% higher than owned households. Sixty-one percent of all residential burglaries occur during the day whereas, in contrast, 58% of non-residential burglaries occur at night.

Worse than burglary, one in four violent crimes occur in or near a person's home, with around thirty percent of all aggravated assaults taking place during a break-in. Half of all felony murders and approximately 60% of rapes occur during a burglary or robbery.

The Challenge: How secure is your property
Even without a professionally installed security system, there are many measures that can be taken to ensure your property is secure. Programs to increase public awareness complement the common sense that tells you to:

• Lock all outside doors
• Install window locks
• Never leave a spare key under a doormat or on a ledge
• Fit external lights in entranceways or alleys
• Stop mail and newspaper deliveries if you go away on holiday

Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Would you also have thought to?

• Install wide-angle peepholes in ALL external doors?
• Lock windows even when they are open a few inches for ventilation?
• Fit an extra lock to secure up-and-over automatic garage doors?
• Trim shrubs and bushes to eliminate hiding places for intruders?
• Ask a neighbor to remove any rubbish that accumulates in your yard and watch the house when you are away?

These are very obvious measures to take to secure your property and encompass the very minimum requirements for the basis of good home security.

The Answer: Professional Security Advice
The only truly comprehensive solution to home security is to act upon professional advice after a security assessment of your property. The first step could be asking your local police station to recommend a suitable home security company. Many companies will offer initial inspections free of charge and with no obligation to purchase or install their systems or alarms. However, you might be unnerved by what they reveal to you. More than 30% of burglaries occur without forcible entry, leading to the inescapable conclusion that, in many properties, security measures are pitifully inadequate.

To be secure in the knowledge that you have done everything possible to protect you, your family and your property, make the decision to arrange a comprehensive security review. You have everything to lose if you don't.

Sources:
i. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

ii. The SDM/Interlogix 2000 Consumer Home Security Survey

iii. FBI Government Statistics

Katrina Boydon
A writer in the scientific and business communities for nearly twenty years, Katrina has worked as a research microbiologist at the Royal London Hospital Medical College, assistant editor-in-chief for a journal published by Blackwell Scientific Publications, and as managing director of a postal and courier company, and set up her own business distributing newspapers and magazines in Moscow, Russia. She has a bachelor's degree in microbiology and studied part-time at the London Business School. Currently, she is a freelance writer and Editor-in-Chief of QuinStreet Publishing, a division of QuinStreet, Inc.

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