NCJ Number
181397
Date Published
September 1999
Length
147 pages
Annotation
Research that focused on four privately owned affordable housing complexes in Chicago gathered information on changes in the use of crime prevention hardware and the crimes known to the police in and near the housing projects.
Abstract
The research was a collaboration between the Illinois Housing Development Authority and the Center for Urban Research and Learning at Loyola University Chicago. The project's title was Safety Enhanced Communities Utilizing Resident Endeavors (SECURE). It aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of physical security improvements in affordable housing developments. The project began in August 1997 and ended in December 1998. Information sources included interviews with management, janitors, and tenants before, during, and after the completion of the hardware changes; videotapes of each housing product before, during, and after completion of the changes; and continuous monitoring of crimes known to the police at the project addresses, in a 500-foot buffer, and in a 1,000-foot buffer from 1996 through 1998. Results revealed that the SECURE changes were most successful in converting semi-public to semi-private space through improved doors and locks and non-duplicable keys. Overall, residents of the four projects felt safer both during the day and at night in their apartment, in the complex, and in their neighborhood after the changes were made. They were also more likely to be very satisfied with their neighborhood. Findings indicated the need to plan security changes carefully, to avoid raising expectations too high, and to recognize that both physical and attitudinal changes are needed to reduce crime. Figures; tables; photographs; and appended survey instruments, list of participants, and interviewer training manual