How to Design a Neighborhood Watch Research Study
Neighborhood Watch, a community-based crime prevention program launched in the 1970s by the National Sheriffs' Association, encourages citizens to report suspicious persons and activities to police and improve neighborhood safety. According to the National Crime Prevention Council, 40 percent of Americans live in areas covered by Neighborhood Watch programs. Designing a research study of your area's Neighborhood Watch program will provide insight into your community's efforts to reduce crime and help you gauge the impact of the program. Fortunately, you do not have to be a master statistician or research specialist to design a Neighborhood Watch study.
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Instructions
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Designing a Neighborhood Watch Evaluation
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Define the specific geographic area covered by the Neighborhood Watch program. You will need to know this to make sure you have an accurate record of crimes and suspicious reports in the area. The watch program's coordinator or block captain can provide you with the geographic boundaries covered by a Neighborhood Watch program.
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2
Specify an appropriate measure or measures for gauging the effectiveness of a Neighborhood Watch program. Examples include the number of incidents of neighborhood crime reported to local police during a particular time period (1 month, 3 months) or the number of suspicious activities reported to police by neighborhood residents during a certain period of time. You can obtain these data from your local police department, which keeps records of crimes and police activity. Check with your police department to determine what types of statistics and data it collects.
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Establish a benchmark measure for the neighborhood you are studying. This should be the same measure you are using to evaluate the Neighborhood Watch program. For example, if you are studying a neighborhood that initiated a new watch program and plan to collect data on the number of criminal incidents over a period of six months, an appropriate benchmark measure would be the number of incidents during a six-month period prior to the Neighborhood Watch program. A reduction in such incidents during six months covered by the program might indicate the program is helping to reduce neighborhood crime.
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Interview the Neighborhood Watch coordinator or block captain about the types of activities the program involves. Examples include citizen patrols and displaying signs or stickers announcing the Neighborhood Watch. Your research study should document what types of activities the program's participants undertake to combat crime.
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Augment the data you collect from police by developing a questionnaire that asks neighborhood residents about their perceptions of neighborhood safety and related issues. This lends additional data to your study and allows you to gain the perspective of neighborhood residents themselves.
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Tips & Warnings
Comparing a neighborhood with a watch program to a demographically similar neighborhood without such a program will heighten the rigor of your research study. If possible, choose a similar neighborhood without a Neighborhood Watch program to serve as a control group. If the neighborhood with the program shows a larger reduction in crime, this may suggest an impact of the Neighborhood Watch.
