“You keep me hanging on”: Evidence from the Columbia door hanger experiment

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate whether police deployment of door hangers providing crime prevention tips to recently victimized households and nearby households reduces property crime in treated areas.

Methods

A randomized field experiment was implemented by randomly assigning the intervention across six neighborhoods in Columbia, SC. The test period lasted 184 days, and the intervention effect was analyzed across burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft crime types.

Results

T-tests and negative binomial regression models indicated significant decreases across all property crimes and thefts in treated areas. However, there were decreases in burglaries and motor vehicle theft which were not statistically significant.

Conclusions

We provide experimental evidence on a light-footprint, super-cocooning police intervention targeting property crime. During a staffing crisis, and since Americans are more likely to experience property crime victimization compared to violent crime, police agencies should consider cost-effective and easy-to-implement strategies such as door hanger intervention to reduce property crime.