Home ownership: an investment in crime prevention?

Abstract

Australia is one of the safest countries in the world. Australians can go about their daily lives with little chance of their becoming the target of a criminal attack. But it does happen - and the prospect that it might happen worries a lot of people. there has been research over many years that demonstrates that people want to conform with the dominant values in their neighbourhoods. If you own your own property, you have good reason to keep it clean, safe, secure and valuable. You also pay more attention to the neighbourhood. American victimisation surveys have shown that home ownership is linked to low crime risks. Those parts of cities with higher home ownership rates repeatedly are found to have lower crime rates.