Cocooning as a Feasible Crime Prevention Strategy in Australia

Running head: CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGY
Cocooning as a feasible means to reduce the high burglary crime rate in Australia
Introduction
As opined by Welsh (2018), the crime rate of the world over the last few years had
increased in an exponential manner despite the different kinds of crime prevention strategies
adopted by the law enforcement departments of the various nations of the world. Groff and
Taniguchi (2019) are of the viewpoint that within the framework of the different crimes
committed by the individuals in Australia is the fact that in the last five years a substantial
increase in the number of burglary cases had been noticed. In this regard, it needs to be said
that the different kinds of burglary crimes not only result in the loss of valuable property but
at the same time often entail with itself physical assault, violence, sexual assault and others
and because of this it had become all the more important for the law enforcement authorities
to effective deal with it in the best possible manner (Cozens & Tarca, 2016). More
importantly, in the present times it had been seen that the police authorities as well as the law
enforcement authorities of Australia are using the process of cocooning as a measure to
reduce the ever-increasing number of burglary cases in the concerned nation (Elffers &
Morgan, 2019). The effective usage of the method of cocooning has enhanced the level of
surveillance while offering the opportunity to the victims to report these instances in the ‘nick
of time’ so as to help the police and law enforcement authorities to take the required actions
in time. This essay will undertake a critical analysis of the process of cocooning as an
important crime prevention and will also evaluate its effectiveness.
High burglary rate in Australia
As per Abs.gov.au (2019), in the year 2017 alone the nation of Australia faced more
than 225,900 cases of burglaries and as a matter of fact on an average one home of the
concerned nation was robed after every 3 minutes. On the other hand, Osac.gov (2019) had

CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGY2
stated that in the nation of Australia it is seen that more than 20.75% of the houses of the
concerned nation had been robed at one point of time or the other. As a matter of fact, a study
conducted by Budgetdirect.com.au (2019) reveals the fact that it less than 5 minutes for more
than 75% of the burglars of the nation of Australia to robe a house. In this regard, it needs to
be said that a survey conducted by the Abs.gov.au (2019) of the burglary rate of the different
nations of the world reveals the fact that the nation of Australia stands at the 5th position in
terms of the number of burglaries that are committed in the concerned nation (Refer to
Appendix 1). In addition to these, it is seen that only 74% or 169,000 households report the
different instances of burglaries that they have faced and the others prefer to remain quiet
about the same because of the legal proceedings which the process of reporting such cases
inevitably entails (Police.wa.gov.au, 2019). More importantly, according to
Budgetdirect.com.au (2019), the Victorian region of Australia in the year 2017 registered the
highest number of reported burglary cases, that is, 65200, and this contributed to more than
2.8% of the entire burglary crime rate of the concerned nation (Refer to Appendix 2).
Cocooning as a crime prevention strategy to reduce burglary crimes
Stokes and Clare (2019) have articulated the viewpoint that the law enforcement
department of Australia in collaboration with its police department over the years had taken
the help of different kinds of crime prevention strategies so as to effectively reduce the high
burglary crime rate of the nation under discussion here. In his regard, it needs to be said that
the process of cocooning is one of the most important crime prevention strategies which is
presently being used by the different residents of the nation of Australia and also being
suggested by the police force as well as the law enforcement department of the concerned
nation as a way to reduce the high burglary rate of the concerned nation (Pegram et al., 2018).
The term ‘cocooning’ was coined by Faith Popcorn in the last decade of the 20th century in
her famous book “The Popcorn Report: The Future of Your Company, Your World, Your

CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGY3
Life” (Groff & Taniguchi, 2019). Hunter and Tseloni (2018) are of the viewpoint that thee
process of cocooning can be defined as the hiding oneself or insulating oneself from the
different kinds of threats posed by the external environmental that over the years had become
unfriendly, threatful and dangerous. More importantly, it is seen that the advancements that
had been made in the field of technology had significantly improved the process of
surveillance system which is being used by the police force of Australia and this in turn had
made the process of cocooning a possible one for the residents of the concerned nation (Hess,
Orthmann & Cho, 2016). As a matter of fact, it is seen that the different residents of the
nation under discussion here are increasingly resorting to the effective usage of diverse kinds
of devices like security cameras, telephones, security alarms, virtual private networks
(VPNs), internet and others to enhance the security of their homes and thereby prevent the
various instances of burglary (Elffers & Morgan, 2019). It is seen that the security alarms that
the residents of the concerned nation are presently using are connected with the nearest police
stations and whenever the residents pull the security alarm the nearest police station gets a
notification regarding the same and thereby have the opportunity to arrest the burglars while
they are still in the home of the victims (Welsh, 2018). Thus, it can be said that the effective
usage of the process of cocooning had enabled the residents of Australia to enhance the
security level of their houses and this in turn had helped them to safeguard their homes
against the threat of burglary and other related crimes which are prevalent in the nation of
Australia.
Overview of Rational Choice Theory
Loughran et al. (2016) are of the viewpoint that the Rational Choice Theory also
called by the name of Choice Theory or Rational Action Theory can be seen as a framework
which is being used for understanding as well as modelling the economic or the social
behaviour of the individuals. This theory of social behaviour was formulated by Gary Becker

CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGY4
and this he was even awarded the “1992 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences”
(Pogarsky, Roche & Pickett, 2017). As opined by Hirschi (2017), one of the most important
assumptions of this theory is the fact that the overall social action of a group of people or for
that of an entire nation depends greatly on the individual behaviour of the different actors,
each of whom contribute towards the overall behaviour of the group itself. The resultant
effect of this is the fact that the theory focuses on the aspect of methodological individualism
or for that matter on the determinants of the individual choices made by the concerned people
(Pogarsky, Roche & Pickett, 2017). More importantly, the concerned theory also states that
the individuals display preferences among the different choices that are available to them and
these preferences displayed by the individuals are greatly determined by the rationality or the
meaningfulness of the concerned preferences (Newman & Clarke, 2016).
Rational Choice Theory and Cocooning
Paternoster, Jaynes and Wilson (2017) are of the viewpoint that one of the most
important trends seen within the framework of criminology is the fact that social sciences as
well as behavioural sciences are being used by the law enforcement authorities for dealing
with various kinds of crimes. In this regard, mention needs to be made of the usage of the
Rational Choice Theory for reducing the burglary rate of the nation of Australia by the police
forces as well as the law enforcement department of the concerned nation. As a matter of fact,
the law enforcement authority of the concerned nation in a bid to reduce the burglary rate of
the concerned nation had tried to amend or change the behaviour of the individual actors,
namely, the residents or the householders of the nation (Cornish & Clarke, 2017). The
resultant effect of this is that the law enforcement department of the concerned nation have
been able to change the careless behaviour of the residents and thereby influenced them to
take help of the process of cocooning for the reduction of the number of cases of burglary.
For example, it is seen that through the effective usage of this theory, the law enforcement