Research

Here are a few publications and studies that we have found regarding Neighborhood Watch.

These are provided for informational purposes only.

A Social Norms Approach to Community-Based Crime Prevention: Implicit and Explicit Messages on Neighborhood Watch Signs by P. Wesley Schultz, Ph.D.; Jennifer J. Tobanico, M.A. Published May 2009

Crime Prevention Research Reveiw #1: Disrupting Street-Level Drug Markets by the Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice (2008)

Crime Prevention Research Review #2: Police Enforcement Strategies to Prevent Crime in Hot Spot Areas: Published by the Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice (2008)

Crime Prevention Research Review #3: Does Neighborhood Watch Reduce Crime? Published by the Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice (2008)

Does Neighborhood Watch Reduce Crime? Research Brief—July 10, 2008 by the National Crime Prevention Council

Does neighborhood watch reduce crime? A systematic review and meta-analysis by Trevor Bennett, Katy Holloway, and David P. Farrington. (2006)

The Effect of Neighborhood Watch Programs on Neighborhood Crime in Medford Oregon: Over the past decade Medford Oregon has expanded their Neighborhood Watch program and increased the number of neighborhood watch groups they have in each section of the city. (2014)

The Effectiveness of Neighborhood Watch: The primary aim of this review is to assess the effectiveness of neighborhood watch in reducing crime. (2008)

Improving the Use and Effectiveness of Neighborhood Watch Programs: This article outlines the results of a national study of Neighborhood Watch (NW) carried out in 1985. (1988)

Investigating Crime-to-Twitter Relationships in Urban Environments: Facilitiating a Virtual Neighborhood Watch: The use of social networks to feed into crime platforms has been acknowledged to build a kind of a virtual neighborhood watch. Current attempts that tried to automatically connect news from social networks with crime platforms have concentrated on documentation of past events, but neglected the opportunity to use Twitter data as a decision support system to detect future crimes. (2014)

Modeling Behavior: What Motivates People to Prepare, or Not Prepare, for Natural Disasters? Preparing for a natural disaster like a hurricane is critical in minimizing damage, but what motivates individuals to listen to warnings and act is largely unexplored territory. (2011)

Neighborhood Watch—Who Watches Whom? Reinterpreting the Concept of Neighborhood - This paper analyzes the Australian and American experiences in Neighborhood Watch community policing schemes. Neighborhood Watch, as a method of social control endorsed by the state, is supported and run solely by volunteers, and so provides a focus to discuss the more subtle meanings and processes of symbolic contestation among state, community, and individual. (1993)

Participation in the Community Social Control, the Neighborhood Watch Groups: This study examines the differences between participants and nonparticipants in neighborhood crime-prevention associations with particular attention paid to the neighborhood-related factors, including crime problems. (2011)

Using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design in Problem-Solving by Diane Zahm, published by the Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice (2007)