2
Aug
2017
By Calvin at 07:59 GMT, 8 years ago
As you may know this website provides you with the opportunity to carry out a DIY security check of your home using our Home Security Survey application (click on the green tab at the top of the page). It’s free, anonymous and confidential and quite fun to do, especially when you are sent the tailor-made Home Security report and risk assessment score, which are generated by our system.
What you may not know is that there is clear evidence that we are overestimating the level of our existing home security arrangements.
The reason I know this is because I ask respondents to rate their home security before filling out the survey and then again after they’ve finished the survey. The results are shown below for the year 2017.
Before you complete this survey how would you rate the current level of your home security?
- Extremely secure 2.1% (2017)
- Very secure 28.2% (2017)
- Moderately Secure 60.3% (2017)
- Not very secure 8.3% (2017)
- Very insecure 1.1% (2017)
Now that you have completed the survey how would you rate the current level of your home security?
- Extremely secure 1.4% (2017)
- Very secure 18.3% (2017)
- Moderately Secure 66% (2017)
- Not very secure 13% (2017)
- Very insecure 1.2% (2017)
Notice the large change in opinion of those who judge their security as either 'Extremely Secure' or ‘Very Secure’, which falls from 30.3% before taking the survey to 19.7% afterwards. The ‘Not Very Secure’ rating increases from 8.3% to 13% once they have completed the survey.
These changes in the perception of security are obviously driven by having to answer fifteen minutes of questions about crime risk! I expected this and is the reason why I added those questions in the first place. The finding suggests that we are perhaps not as good at assessing our home security as we thought we were and is confirmation that we really do need access to independent and expert advice. And that, everyone is why I created this website!
The Home Security Survey – give it a go!
