Assessing the vulnerability of targets for burglary. Creating a multi-level observational instrument

Many empirical studies on burglary focus on environmental characteristics, more specifically on non-observable factors like residential mobility and income. However, since burglars cannot observe these characteristics, why would they use them in the target selection process? Environmental research mostly looks at the macro level, the neighbourhood, or the micro level, the house. The meso level, the street, has been researched less often. A gap in previous research lies in the combination of multiple levels. The interaction effect between the neighbourhood, the street and the house has hardly been researched, while all these levels are taken into account when a burglar selects a target. This paper addresses the construction and pilot test of an observational instrument at neighbourhood, street and house level for the observation of stable environmental factors. The instrument presented in this paper can be used in further research to examine the influence of environmental characteristics on target selection by burglars.FWO FlandresFdR – Publicaties zonder aanstelling Universiteit Leide