Homesafing Keyham: an evaluation

Abstract

The impact of a target‐hardening initiative on residents of an inner city area of Plymouth, England, was assessed by comparing the perceptions of those included in the initiative (experimental group) with other local residents (control group). While the former felt that target hardening had improved their sense of security, differences between the two groups were minimal on standard ‘fear of crime’ questions, leading us to question whether this was because the project failed or due to the evaluation design. One aspect of the latter is whether ‘fear of crime’ questions are valid measurements in this context. Another relates to differences between the experimental and control groups. A further valuable lesson from the research in this respect was that even where initiatives locate impoverished groups, they may still miss other, even more disadvantaged sections of the community living in the same area.