Cocooning: A Crime Prevention Strategy for Residential Burglary

Running head: COCOONING
Cocooning
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1COCOONING
Cocooning refers to reactive strategy that offers protection from reoccurrence of the
residential burglary. It started in the middle of the year 1990 that forms a part of the crime
prevention study. It has undergone evolution and become an encompassing policing
technique in the present age (Weisburd, 2018). It is used like a standard tool that is used in
the case of situational prevention of the crime. This essay throws light on the aspect of
cocooning that is used as a crime prevention strategy in the case of residential burglary. This
essay discusses about rational choice theory and how it can be helpful in understanding about
the aspect of cocooning. This essay states how cocooning can help in the prevention of repeat
residential burglary.
In the event of cocooning, victim of burglary is seen in person and they are offered
with the crime prevention advice. The victims are provided with the reassurance that plays an
important role in preventing the crime.According to Eck and Weisburd (2015),the neighbours
of the victim are also visited and they are informed regarding the incidence of the recent
burglary. They are made known about the method of the crime and the property that has been
taken in the case of the crime. The neighbours are provided with the crime prevention advice
that helps in the case of repeat residential burglary.It has been argued by Weisburd and
McEwen (2015), thatcocooning acts as an activity that interfaces with that of community
raising awareness pertaining to the crime. Cocooning can help the people in becoming aware
regarding policing services. It can help them in taking the appropriate measures that can help
them in protecting their homes.
It has been found that a large number of burglaries take place on account of the
unlocked doors along with the windows. Cocooning helps the people in understanding about
the significance of locking their houses at all the times. The residents of a locality are
encouraged of reporting regarding any case of suspicious activity to the police. The burglars
have the tendency of targeting many houses within same street or various streets within same

2COCOONING
area (Wortley&Townsley, 2016). The burglars do not travel far from the home and they have
the habit of hitting the several houses within the close proximity. Cocooning should take
place within the 48 hours as it is the likely timeframe in which a burglar have the greatest
chance of returning.
The “cocoon” neighbourhood watch can play an important role in preventing the
occurrence of the residential burglary. According to Pegram et al. (2018),the group work
programmes can be immensely helpful in preventing burglary within a locality. A union of
the people can prove to be an effective means that can help in offering protection to the
houses from the incidences of burglary. It can help in making the people conscious that can
greatly help in reducing the occurrence of the crimes. Cocooning can serve an important
purpose and it can be effective in the prevention of vandalism or the petty crimes. There are
household level measures that are undertaken in the case of cocooning that proves to be
effective in the prevention of burglary. There are security measures that can be taken like the
deadlocks along with the window locks that can help in the prevention of cases of repeat
burglary. The security measures taken within the home has an effect on the aspect of the
victimisation rate across the countries (Stokes & Clare, 2019). There are various measures
that can be introduced like the burglar alarms, window locks along with the detection device
that can help in preventing the incidents of burglary.
Rational choice theory refers to a framework that helps in understanding and
modelling the social along with the economic behaviour. Basic premise of the theory is that
the rational choice theory can be said to be the aggregate of the social behaviour results that
takes place from behaviour of the individual actors.It has been argued by Groff and
Taniguchi (2019),rational choice theory assumes the fact that individuals in the society have
the preferences among that of the choice alternatives. The preferences that an individual have
can be said to be complete and it can also be transitive. Rational agent takes into account the