Burglary prevention advice letters: a cluster randomised controlled trial in Luton, England

Objectives: We evaluate law enforcement letters aimed at raising awareness of burglary rates and providing home security recommendations in the UK, examining whether such interventions can reduce burglary incidents, potentially by improving home security practices. Methods: A cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted in Luton, England: Output Areas covering all households were randomly assigned to an experimental group that received a letter containing home security recommendations and photographs of home protection ‘best practices’ (e.g. ‘lock doors and windows’), an experimental group that received the same letter but with photos of burglary offenders, and a control group that did not receive letters; the results were analysed using count based, cluster-Poisson regression models. Results: The two letters did not yield statistically significant variations in burglary rates relative to the control condition, with the lock doors and windows letter’s Incident Rate Ratio (IRR) = 1.071 95% CI (0.588-1.951) and the letter with faces IRR = 1.141 95% CI (0.608-2.140). Conclusions: Sending letters may not encourage behavioral changes resulting in burglary prevention; effective interventions may require more comprehensive, tailored approaches to ensure that the burglary risk is perceived as credible and to motivate households to self-protect against burglary.