Advertisement

Alarms could increase the risk of burglary, says study

Installing a house alarm could increase the chance of your home being burgled Credit: Alistair Wilson 50/50/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Installing an alarm could increase the chances of a home being burgled, according to researchers at Loughborough University.

Criminologists conducted an 18-month project that measured the effectiveness of home security measures. They found alarms to be among the least effective measures against burglary.

Statistics from the British Crime Survey showed that when alarms were used in combination with other anti-intruder devices such as deadlocks and window locks, there was either no change or an increase in the risk of burglary.

External security lights and inside lights on a timer were found to be the most effective method of keeping intruders out.

"Whilst domestic burglary has reduced substantially in recent years it is still a high volume crime.

"At the start of this research we knew that the risk of becoming a victim was not equally spread across households. We now know what security devices work in what contexts."

– Andromachi Tseloni, Professor of Quantitative Criminology from the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University