“Defensible space represents a way of fighting crime through careful arrangement of the physical aspects of communities, retail buildings, and residences.”–(Schneider et al., 2016, p. 353)
Last December, an incident occurred in my house that really scared me and raised a serious family discussion regarding home security and safety preparedness. We live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you are not familiar with this area, you may check the graph below derived from the FBI’s latest crime report. That could, in part, explain our seeming overreaction towards this encounter.
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer (2020)
One afternoon, a supermarket delivery man wearing black sunglasses came to my front door, pressed the doorbell, and waited. I could see him via our Ring surveillance camera on my phone, so I could tell from the plastic bag he was carrying that he was the delivery person from the store. However, according to my previous experience with the store’s delivery service, which we had been using since the beginning of Covid-19, I knew this sort of waiting was quite unusual. It was supposed to be a no-contact service, and it always was. Thus, under such an ambiguous circumstance, I didn’t feel like I wanted to open the door for this unexpected stranger. I expected him to leave soon, as most people would do when nobody replies to the bell.
However, this person did not leave. He was still at my front porch after 15 minutes. The longer he waited, the more unusual this waiting seemed to me. “We have to do something, he is still here!” I worryingly turned to my husband, who was sitting on the couch watching YouTube. “I don’t think we should do anything. He was not supposed to do that, and we don’t know who he is even if he is wearing the store uniform, right?” My husband is right. I have to admit that I made a mistake at the time when I nudged my husband to open the door for that person. There have been many home robbery cases where the perpetrators wear uniforms to gain people’s trust. So, my husband’s assumption was possible!
Nonetheless, we opened the door. The encounter with this delivery man was feeling uneasily odd. He asked us, “why don’t you leave me a tip?” we soon realized that he must be new to this service and told him that the delivery is an all-included service and it did not even have an option for customers to leave a tip. So, my husband answered his questions and then politely closed the door. During their conversation, I was hiding behind my husband and carefully listened. I could feel that there was something wrong with this person’s communication. Luckily, nothing bad happened. After closing the door, this delivery man left but sat in his car waiting outside my house for another 15 minutes. I watched him through my Ring’s app until he left and finally felt relieved.
Now, let’s get back to the defensible space design. According to the textbook, “defensible space design” is defined as a building design that could encourage or discourage crime in neighborhoods. For example, in my story, if our front porch gate was locked (it is usually unlocked for the convenience of UPS/FedEx delivery), then we would have felt less unease if he had been stopped by the gate. Or, if there was a glass screen door between him and us, then it could have reduced some uneasiness and uncertainty. But as you can see from the above picture, the gate-to-door space could be seen as a defensible space. Compared to other houses without such a gate-to-door space, the risk of my packages being stolen would likely decrease because someone has to walk through the gate to steal my package, which would increase the cost of the criminal act.
To sum, the lesson we learned from this incident was 1) to not open our door to strangers even if they look harmless; call 911 if they don’t leave for a long time, and 2) when looking for a residence, pay more attention to the original safety-related aspects of the building. My last suggestion is that, especially for women, we should be vigilant all the time and don’t worry about seeming rude when it comes to our own safety. It costs nothing but may save our lives someday!
References:
Uniform crime reporting (UCR) program. (n.d.). [Folder]. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 3 February 2022, from https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (3nd ed). Sage.
Tags: Applied social psychology, Defensible space, FBI, Home security
This is an incredibly frightening experience and I’m glad nothing major occurred. I’m also surprised from the evidence you presented from the FBI crime reporting for New Mexico.
I agree that this is a defensible space, but do you feel that since the gate is unlocked at most times for other delivery services that it could be more effectively used?
In addition, do you feel more comfortable in your home knowing the defensible space represented by the area between your gate and entrance is there? Drawing from the text, social design (Gruman) characteristics could also be employed here. Perhaps if the owner of a similar home had been able to give input on the design, the walls of the gate could be lower with decorative bars on top so that other members of the community could provide additional peace of mind.
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.
MacDonald and Gifford’s study involving convicted burglars and defensible space produced results against the theory. Barriers such as the gate and walls of your home were seen as challenges to be overcome. Participants in the study saw such barriers as indications of value instead of deterrents (Gruman, 2016). Robinson and Robinson found that surveilability was impactful at reducing burglary (Gruman, 2016). The inclusion of video and clear view from your door are two effective examples of defensible space, but the tall walls and hidden courtyard are away from neighbor view. This does reduce the community surveilability because your neighbors are unable to monitor for suspicious activity. Maybe the inclusion of a video camera installed visibly by the gate would be an even better deterrent. While I realize this resource isn’t academic, an article in the Guardian asked former criminals about the effectiveness of deterrent measures. Cameras and barking dogs made the top of the list. Interestingly, fences and gates came in at numbers 8 and 9 (Smithers, 2017). These findings, although unempirical, conflict with the noted studies cited here. It would be interesting to delve more into these concepts of defensible space. Your experience sounds frightening, and, as a woman, I empathize with the impact this made on your life.
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.
Smithers, R. (2017, August). Former burglars say barking dogs and CCTV are best deterrent. The Guardian. Retrieved February 5, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/18/former-burglars-barking-dogs-cctv-best-deterrent