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Situational Crime Theory Essay

859 Words4 Pages

Hypothesis
Households with security signs in their front yards are less likely to be burglarized relative to households without signs. The independent variable is security signs on front yards. The dependent variable is burglary. The unit of analysis households.
Theory
Situational crime theory explains how people can reduce the crime activities that happen in their environment. This theory has strategies that make it difficult for criminals to take the items they want, making sure there are more cameras in places that will attract potential criminals and increase the risk of capture to deter crime. The surveillance can be more than just cameras, it can also be neighborhood watch programs and more police patrolling in the area. People can make their environment harder for criminals to escape and making them believe that they have no chance in get away after from the crime scene. This theory also explains how criminologist want not only prevent crime, but try to find out why it occurs (Smith, 2003). Situational crime is the best theory to explain the hypothesis. The use of security signs would make it difficult for thieves to steal items under …show more content…

There is a causal relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. The security signs placed can in fact deter potential criminals from burglarizing the household. They do empirically correlate with each other. The crime rates would demonstrate that people seeing security signs would less likely influence them to steal. There is a less likely third variable to explain the relationship. The randomization of the two groups are statically equivalent before the experiment so if any changes happen in the dependent variable it would be because of the treatment not any differences between the two groups. The post test of the dependent variable determines if the security signs do indeed prevent

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