Role of large scale housing designers and specifiers in home burglary reduction

Burglary security for households has been an important discussion topic for societies for many generations. Law enforcers, policymakers, academics, politicians and industry practitioners all debate on the most effective means of securing homes. Although individual homeowners can determine how secure and sophisticated their home security systems may be, this is not always the case in many situations e.g. in the delivery of large scale house building. In contrast, designers and specifiers of large house building projects are responsible for the level of security of these new homes in the first instance. Some research have suggested that very simple approaches such as quality window locks, indoor lights, door locks and external lights (the WIDE approach) are sufficient in significantly reducing the possibility of burglary on households. The aim of this research is to highlight some current perceptions and practices of expert designers and specifiers in the large scale house building sector with regard to burglary security. This research uses in-depth qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews of experienced designers and specifiers from one of the UK’s largest specialists in housing. Findings from this pilot study suggest that these experts consider many issues when making decisions on specifications. These include crime survey statistics of the location of new developments, financial ceiling of retail value of properties and the demographics of the potential tenants. More importantly, word of mouth plays an important role in how designers and specifiers understand the susceptibility of a given area to burglary. This paper encourages a pathway for additional open discussions between relevant stakeholders such as members of the Secured by Design (official police security initiative), large scale house builders, homeowners and landlords in order to further drive down the occurrences of burglaries.