Cocooning & Procedural Justice Dialectics: An RCT to Assess Burglary Reduction & Resident Perspectives in Tucson

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

In 2017, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) was awarded funding from the National Institute of Justice to study the impact of cocooning (notifying neighbors of the burglary to increase their risk awareness and provide target hardening suggestions to decrease their risk for near repeat offenses) and procedural justice dialogues on residential burglaries and citizens’ perceptions of crime, disorder, and policing using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The RCT began in summer 2021 after facing several challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a change to the project location from Prince George’s County (MD) to Tucson (AZ). This panel will describe the purpose and goals of the project, challenges encountered during the implementation and evaluation of the program, findings from the repeat and near-repeat analyses and community survey, and implications for future policy and research.

Sub Unit

• Area XI. Methodology / 80. Advances in Evaluation Research

Individual Presentations

• Residential Burglary Strategies in Tucson, AZ: Facing the Challenges of a Randomized Controlled Trial - William H. Sousa, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Cocooning and Procedural Justice: Applications of Residential Burglary Reduction Strategies in Tucson, AZ - Danielle Fenimore, Police Executive Research Forum

• Community Perceptions of Police Strategies: Testing the Efficacy of Procedural Justice Dialogues in Tucson, AZ - Jeremy Barnum, Police Executive Research Forum

• Lessons from Tucson, AZ: Discussing the Findings and Implications of a Burglary Reduction RCT - Kevin Hall, Tucson Police Department; Meagan Cahill, Police Executive Research Forum

Chair

• Joel Hunt, National Institute of Justice