books on criminology/not being targeted in 1st place?

[twice_shy 0]

Hello, i'm new to this forum and this is my first nonintro post.

 

Before I even go into specific future scenarios for layouts of cameras and such, I was curious if anyone had a good list of website articles, books, or even instructional dvd's covering how to avoid being a target for crime in the first place. Most notably "how to think like a criminal"/how criminals think, so that you can work backwards avoiding being a target in the first place.

 

It's one thing to secure a building or house already up, another to design it to not be a target in the first place or to consciously choose issues of location and neighboring buildings so that you're not 'the one'. I'm hoping to do the latter. Although I am not yet in a position to even begin shopping for rural land for a business project or residential location, I would like to educate myself before I even begin the shopping process because I want to pick a place that's going to seriously reduce the dangers as much as possible in the first place. I'm mostly concerned about being a random target - if I become a specific target for some reason (ie witness in a prosecution against bad people) that's a whole different ball of wax but then AFAIK it no longer is protective if your house is hard to find, or not visible from the road, or whatever.

 

 

An example is I once read a series of articles that talked about things like don't have shrubs to hide in right next to the door because you could be ambushed, beware of having anything criminals can climb on to reach the roof readily without a ladder, but on other areas the jury seems to be out - a secluded place not seen in the first place may not be targeted if not seen (what the eyes do not see they cannot plan to steal or vandalize) but also provides cover for people to do anything they want if they don't fear passerby witnessing a crime. Yet when a van can pull up and loot everything within six minutes in broad daylight and many neighborhoods don't see a single thing i'm not even sure how much that matters.

 

Unfortunately when I originally saw such articles I don't remember bookmarking them because I had the luck to mostly be in very low crime areas. Now things are different and I have to be alot more aware.

 

PS - I am aware of the TV show "It Takes A Thief" from about 8 years back and things similar to that count (I don't know of anything else similar to that) even though I don't like that it's basically one long sales-pitch and focuses more on hardware solutions than avoidance. I'm really really looking for the initial avoidance issues - like something telling me "you want to be living in the middle of the block, not on the ends, here's why!" for instance. (I've no clue if that's even true, that's just an example, all of the initial base conditions that make you less of a target before additional physical security hardware even gets involved.)

[Owain 0]

In the UK there is the Secured By Design initiative, including advice for architects and developers:

 

http://www.securedbydesign.com/professionals/index.aspx

 

which links to the Design Against Crime Research Centre

 

http://www.designagainstcrime.com/

[Billy_ICU 0]

1. Turn off the TV. TV is fantasy and has NOTHING to do with reality.

 

2. It is all a numbers game. Things which are shown on TV news may just happen to one person in one city in 5 years in a country of 300 million people. (In other words, it is NOT even remotely possible it will ever happen to you - or in your state - or ever happen again anywhere - Turn off the TV!)

 

3. Reality is insurance companies and their claims for losses. Contact your insurance company and find out what they recommend for security in YOUR SPECIFIC AREA.

 

4. Also contact your local police department and ask for crime data for YOUR SPECIFIC AREA. Some areas have little or no violent crime - not to worry about being "attacked"! Look at the numbers - what the criminals are ACTUALLY doing in your area!

 

Other than that, criminals in residential areas are quite stupid and lazy. They will bypass homes which are likely to get them caught, sound an alarm, have motion activated lights, record them on CCTV, etc. They do have enough sense to go next door where there is no security. So DO let the criminals know all about your alarm system and CCTV system with plenty of posted signs. Also let them know about that vicious dog in the back yard - they hate barking dogs because that also draws attention to them.

 

And you may have $50,000.00 worth of "stuff" in your house - but they will typically ONLY take what they can quickly grab and sell at a pawn shop. Small things like small electronic devices, coins, jewelry, etc. Don't worry about them taking your couch or pictures off the wall [typically].

 

Back to insurance, a beer distribution warehouse will have VERY high security requirements imposed upon it by its insurance company. We're talking vicious dogs, 24 hour guards, and an ultra high security system which is much better than most banks have! Why? Because they get broken into more, few crooks attempt to break into bank vaults. All in the numbers!

 

(Many banks did not even have a burglar alarm in their lobby area for many years - just on the vault. They do now that the cost has come down significantly for security systems. Anyway no one ever broke into a bank and stole their typewriters - no need to cover it for burglary [robbery of course...])