Crime prevention through neighbourhood watch : analysing and comparing neighbourhood watch in Hal Tarxien and Gzira

Abstract

Neighbourhood watch ‘is a crime-prevention programme that brings community members together and teaches them how to make their neighbourhoods safer by using basic crime prevention techniques and identifying and reporting suspicious activity” (Wilson, Brown & Shuster, 2009). Neighbourhood watch programmes started and evolved in the US and UK and research shows that these programmes have been quite effective. In the Maltese Islands, on the other hand, in 2017 there is only one locality that has an on-going neighbourhood watch programme. Furthermore, the outcome of such programme is still not clear. Therefore, the aims and objectives of this study are intended to analyse the concept of community crime prevention through neighbourhood watch in Hal Tarxien and to understand whether it has been effective. This research study shows that in fact, although the programme differs significantly from those in the US and UK’s programmes, nevertheless, results derived from the meta-analysis indicates that such programme was effective in reducing crime by 20 percent.