NCJ Number
89781
Date Published
1982
Length
316 pages
Annotation
In its second 9 months of operation, the California Community Crime Resistance Program is making satisfactory progress in conducting its planned activities, meeting the need for crime prevention information, and providing the groundwork for further activities.
Abstract
The program focuses on burglary and aims to identify successful crime prevention programs, disseminate information on successful anticrime techniques, and increase the number of citizen volunteers active in crime prevention efforts. In March 1982, projects in 32 locations were added to the original 8 projects. Both the planned and actual levels of performance of the eight continuing projects varied with respect to the number and mix of chosen activities and the intensities of efforts within any one activity. Although the projects, taken as a whole, were not effective in reducing the number of reported residential burglaries, participants in Neighborhood Watch programs and similar programs reported high satisfaction with the program. The program also improved relations between citizens and the police and offered a means of community service training for the police. It also enabled heterogeneous neighborhoods the means to develop a neighborhood identity. In the future, neighborhoods should receive standardized curricula for Neighborhood Watch, and programs should use a planned number of volunteers and paraprofessionals. Project planning should result from an analysis of local crime patterns. Additional recommendations, data tables, and appendixes presenting reports on individual projects and study instruments are provided.