7
Jun
2016
By Calvin at 10:07 GMT, 9 years ago
Here’s something of interest, which relates to a conversation I had with the security guy at a Sainsbury’s Supermarket this morning.
Sunday and yesterday were the two hottest days in London so far this year; the max-min thermometer in the shade of my garden registered 26°C yesterday and about time too!
So why the headline about crime risk and temperature? According to the Sainsbury’s security man who I shall call John (because that was his name) I wouldn’t believe the number of people who leave their parked car windows open while they’re shopping in the store (Oh yes I would). He reckoned it was because the heat just goes to people’s heads and they don’t think straight. I asked him if he meant ‘hot-headed’ or that sort of thing. He said “Well, sort of, but not in the sense that they want to get into an argument. It’s more that it affects their ability to think straight.”
To put this conversation into context I should add that the reason we were chatting was because the police were attending the car park dealing with a theft from one of the customer’s cars. The owner had left a window open and some stuff was stolen off the back seat. The suspect was seen by the car owner as he returned to the car with a full trolley, so giving chase was somewhat impractical. I could see that John was out of breath (having given chase and lost the suspect) and as I’m an inquisitive sort of chap (some might say nosey) I went up to him to find out what had happened.
When I got home I thought it would be interesting to look up the research into temperature and crime and when I did it revealed some interesting findings. I found some US research showing a relationship between crime and temperature, especially violent crime, which does seem to increase with higher temperatures. However, there is also research that suggests that at around 27° to 30°C crime starts falling off again. The common factor it seems is the level of social interaction. If the weather’s good more people go out and there is more social interaction and therefore more opportunity for things to go wrong. When the temperature hits a certain high – a tipping point – people stay indoors to keep cool and so there is less social interaction and less opportunity. If you’re interested in finding out more about the relationship a Google search will throw up lots of interesting papers and reports to read.
Back to Sainsbury’s I thought that John had certainly hit on something. The better the weather the more of us open car windows, even those of us with air conditioning. More of us open windows at home as well and the more of us who open windows the more of us forget to close them and hence the more opportunity for crime. – Simples!
If you haven’t visited The Crime Prevention Website before and you’re thinking about improving your home security do pay us a visit. The site has about 250,000 words of advice covering most aspects of home and personal security and is expanding all the time.
Have a great week and keep the brolly to hand as I believe the temperature is going to drop and rain will fall. (Fewer crimes though)
The Crime Prevention Website http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/
