Seattle Community Crime Prevention Program (CCPP)
Problems addressed
Robberies
Effectiveness

Effective

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Effective

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Life periods served
People of all ages
Where the program was applied
Residence / home
Community (streets or community centers)
Country of application
United States
Description

This is a program that combines strategies of physical modifications in residential areas with community prevention. Its main objective is to reduce burglaries in residential areas and increase the number of intrusion reports that are in progress.
The program focuses on implementing three prevention strategies:
1) Identification and marking of all valuable tangible property;
2) Replacement of door and window locks with more resistant and secure materials;
3) Formation of community organizations to guard the neighborhood streets and thus exercise social control over the common areas.
The community team contacted and accompanied police officers during their patrols to learn about monitoring standards in the area. From this partnership, a community profile was developed with demographic and criminal data on the residents of the area.

Impact evaluations

An impact evaluation showed that in 12 months of intervention there was a 61% reduction in robberies in the target area. Burglary reporting rates were also significantly higher among program participants (68% vs. 40% of non-participants). There was a significant increase in the proportion of calls to the police to report burglaries in progress in the program areas, with no displacement of crime to surrounding areas [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Lindsay, B., & McGillis, D. (1986). Citywide community crime prevention: An assessment of the Seattle program. Community crime prevention: Does it work, 46-67.

Information source