1st Edition
Guarding Against Crime Measuring Guardianship within Routine Activity Theory
This ground-breaking book examines the critical role that citizens play in guarding against crime. By focusing on the ways in which residents are able to capably guard their residential environments from crime, Reynald shows how local residents function (or fail to function) as effective crime controllers. The studies contained herein are aimed at developing our theoretical, empirical and practical understanding of the function of the capable guardian as a critical, yet elusive actor in the crime event model. In lieu of utilizing secondary data sources for proxy measures, this book argues in favour of new, more direct measures of guardianship, employing direct methods of primary data collection in order to capture the action dimensions of capable guardianship, as well as various other environmental and contextual factors that affect it. It features observations of guardianship in action and interviews with guardians to elucidate the factors that empower guardians to make them capable of crime control.
Biography
Danielle M. Reynald, Griffith University, Australia
'Dr. Reynald has measured how local residents reduce their crime risk - or fail to do so. Her work goes to the heart of criminology, with clear thinking and sharp measurement.' Marcus Felson, Texas State University, USA 'Reynald delivers a wake-up call for all researchers and practitioners interested in the environmental approach to criminology. She unravels and clarifies the rather under-researched process of guardianship and its central role in crime prevention, through a carefully designed series of incremental observational and interview studies. In future, no criminologist can write about guardianship without discussing this ground breaking work.' Henk Elffers, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement NSCR, Amsterdam, The Netherlands