Cocooning as a Crime Prevention Strategy

Running head: COCOONING AS CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGY 1
Cocooning as a Crime Prevention Strategy
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COCOONING AS CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGY
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Cocooning meaning and relation to burglary
Residential burglary is a major criminal offense experienced in Australia amongst other
crimes such as theft, physical and sexual assault. It is the act of illegally trespassing into ones
dwelling place with the intent of committing a crime or felony (Stokes & Clare, 2019). This
crime that attracts a penalty of 14 years imprisonment or a fine of $100 000 depending on the
felony is frequently experienced with statistics indicating that in every 3 minutes there is an
occurrence in burglary.
Approximately 20.3% of homes in Australia have experienced burglary at a point due to
reasons such as empty homes during both day and night with valuables and goods inside, several
entries points to houses and presence of homes next to public areas amongst other reasons.
In order to prove the occurrence of burglary, there must be forceful and unconsented
entry, use of force, presence of a building or structure that the burglar enters and proof that the
burglars' intentions were dangerous and could lead to unlawful acts.
A crime prevention strategy for residential burglary is cocooning. This term was coined
by Faith Popcorn a trend forecaster and marketing consultant where in her context it was a trend
where people would be staying at home in accessing and operating businesses an example being
electronic shopping The term became popular through her book, The Popcorn Report: The
Future of Your Company, Your World, Your Life.
In crime prevention, cocooning is the practice of isolating a person from other people or
the normal social environment because of an unfriendly and dangerous threat in the environment
(Bowers, & Johnson, 2017). Cocooning has been enabled with the advancement of technology
enabling people from a different location to interact virtually. This practice sees people
interacting less and retreating more into their homes.

COCOONING AS CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGY
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Even though this measure is applicable in stopping a residential burglary, it is mostly
used in preventing repetitive or reoccurring residential burglary. Repetitive residential burglary
are burglaries whose occurrence are in close resemblance and proximity in terms of time and
space to the initial burglary.
When carried out in conjunction with relevant authorities cocooning is very effective
since it can help reduce repetitive burglary 24 – 48 hours after a burglary has occurred. Reports
have indicated that a similar burglary is likely to occur within 48 hours of the initial burglary due
to the fact that most burglars are in close proximity and statistics indicate that 31% to 76% will
go back to the same place to commit a criminal offense where they once succeeded.
Cocooning is also helpful in dealing with hotspot areas where burglars are likely to occur
since the owners of the house are present to ensure the safety of their belongings. There can also
be the establishment of cocoon neighborhood watch where neighbors watch the properties of
each other especially when one of the neighbors is not present to ensure that repetitive burglary
is not experienced.
Super cocooning is also a measure in preventing burglary that targets the victims of
burglary and those that are staying around them, one key requirement of super-cocooning is that
the resident has to be occupied. It also entails Police Community Support Officers (PCSO)
visiting premises near the house that has recently undergone burglary to inform them of the
offense and advise them on how to prevent such a crime, since, statistics indicate that houses
within 100 meters are likely to be victims of burglary (Groff & Taniguchi, 2019). Super
cocooning is also done through regular scheduled super cocooning visits in order to determine
the state of homes and warn residents of any kind of danger.