Is someone there - Eliciting the presence of guardians with technology

One of the key factors in deterring criminals according to the Routine Activity Theory (RAT) is guardianship.  Guardianship is the presence of one or more people who can potentially stop a crime. With guardians present, crime is less likely. With the rise of technology, we have more opportunities than ever to make it look like guardians are present in a neighbourhood, by using smart home devices power by AI such as smart cameras, automatic lights or even blinds that close automatically.  However, what makes criminals – and ordinary people for that matter– perceive a technology as being a human or being a smart-home device. Only when technology can make us feel like someone is present, will it be effective to deter criminals.  

In this thesis project you will help set-up a VR-study in which people are exposed to multiple types of technology mimicking guardianship in a virtual neighbourhood. Participants will rate the likelihood of perceiving a human or a technology pretending to be a human

Guardianship, deterrence, AI, smart-home devices

Example research questions include:

1. Can technology successfully mimic guardianship?
2. What type of technology is most likely to successfully mimic guardianship?
3. Does the display of the technology (e.g. frequency or intensity) impact perceptions of guardianship?

Research questions may be changed based on the student’s interests.

Most likely methods are in-person experiments, quantitative research.

The quantitative data of this study will be analysed by data analysis programmes such as R. If qualitative data emerges, this will be analysed via data-analyisis progammes such as Atlas.Ti.

Please contact Marleen Haandrikman (m.j.m.haandrikman@utwente.nl) when you are interested in this assignment. The assignment is open to 2 students. 

• Hollis-Peel, M. E., Reynald, D. M., Van Bavel, M., Elffers, H., & Welsh, B. C. (2011). Guardianship for crime prevention: A critical review of the literature. Crime, law and social change, 56(1), 53-70.
• Nagin, D. S., Herman, S., & Barnum, T. C. (2023). Collective Guardianship, Reactive and Proactive. Crime and Justice, 52(1), 487-523.
• van Sintemaartensdijk, I., Van Gelder, J. L., Van Prooijen, J. W., Nee, C., Otte, M., & Van Lange, P. (2021). Mere presence of informal guardians deters burglars: A virtual reality study. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 17(4), 657-676.
• van Sintemaartensdijk, I., Frerichs, S., Friehs, M. A., & de Vries, P. W. (2026). Dynamic defence: dynamic guardianship for enhanced neighbourhood security. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1-30.