You can stop crime! Fostering guardianship in people (using technology)

Guardianship is the presence of one or more people who can potentially stop a crime and is a key factor in deterring criminals. With technology coming into the mix new challenges arise to understand what guardianship is: when you do not see anyone but you do see cameras is someone watching you? As guardianship is vital to deter criminals it is necessary that we know what guardianship can consist of and how we can make sure that guardianship is present in for example neighbourhoods to deter burglars. 

Your research will contribute to practice and policy making by showing the limits and benefits of guardianship and how we should foster guardianship. In this project there are numerous topics within guardianship you can tackle. Two specific example topics are first to study how people will respond to different crime scenarios, to see which factors help (or hinder people) from intervening when this is necessary. For example if intervening means a guardian is in danger, are they still willing to intervene. The second is to see when technology mimicking the presence of a person is seen as human or as an AI feature. For example, if we see a light suddenly turning on in a house do we think the homeowners are there or are the lights turning on automatically due to a timer?

You own input into the topic of the thesis is valued and highly appreciated, and thus there are more potential topics within guardianship you can pursuit or combine with other topics.

Example of potential research questions are:

1.      What factors hinder people from intervening when they see a crime happening?

2.      If we let people take the perspective of a criminal, can they understand better how and why to display guardianship?

3.      Can we train people to exhibit physical guardianship?

4.      What measures make it seem like someone is at home, where in reality there is no one present?

5.      What technology can safely mimic a guardian and what technology is marked as being an AI by people watching?  

The options are experimental, survey or even qualitative approaches, depending on the research questions and preferences of the student.

Guardianship; crime prevention;  behaviour change

If you are interested in this topic, please contact Steven Watson via s.j.watson@utwente.nl. The assignment is open to two students.

Available any time

·        Reynald, D. M. (2009). Guardianship in action: Developing a new tool for measurement. Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 11(1), 1-20.

·        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.

Nagin, D. S., Herman, S., & Barnum, T. C. (2023). Collective Guardianship, Reactive and Proactive. Crime and Justice, 52(1), 487-523.