Description
You have the power to stop a crime, by exerting guardianship. Guardianship is the presence of one or more individuals that have the potential to stop a crime (Hollis-Peel, Reynald, Van Bavel, Elffers & Welsh, 2011). Especially in burglaries, the presence of people has been shown to be vital to stop burglaries from taking place.
We know however so little about guardianship, as there has been a lack experimental research on its impact on crime. Understanding when guardianship takes place, how criminals respond to guardianship and how we can foster guardianship are vital to prevent crime.
Research question
The research questions that we could answer in this project are:
- What forms of guardianship exists? Do you need to be physically present to deter a criminal or can we also use symbolic guardianship?
- How can we stimulate people to act as guardians?
- If we let people take the perspective of a criminal, can they understand better how to display guardianship?
- Can we train people to exhibit more guardianship?
Research method
Most likely methods are (online) experiments
Data-analysis
The quantitative data of this study will be analysed by quantitative data analysis programmes such R.
INFORMATION
Please contact Lynn Weiher (l.weiher@utwente.nl) when you are interested in this assignment. The assignment is open to four students.
Literature
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.
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., Van Gelder, J. L., Van Prooijen, J. W., Nee, C., Otte, M., & van Lange, P. (2022). Assessing the deterrent effect of symbolic guardianship through neighbourhood watch signs and police signs: a virtual reality study. Psychology, Crime & Law, 1-21.