Citation

McLean SJ, Worden RE, MoonSun Kim , Garmley TL, Bonner HS. Crim. Justice Policy Rev. 2010; 21(3): 363-380.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0887403410367679

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Exposure to crime occurs when an individual’s activities place them in vulnerable situations. A collaborative problem-solving approach to address student victimization in one area of the city of Ashton resulted in the development of a safe passageway initiative, Operation Safe Corridor (OSC). OSC applies the logic of crime and place research by focusing efforts that seek to modify behavior and reduce opportunities for criminal behavior in the corridor. Despite concentrated deployment of resources in a relatively small area, OSC has not had the expected impact on student victimization. Although OSC was introduced as a measure whose primary focus was to combat personal crimes, particularly street robberies, the intervention appears more successful with respect to property crime. Thus, despite efforts to raise awareness regarding personal safety, college-aged individuals are still making themselves vulnerable as targets and OSC seems instead to have had an effect on would-be offenders. The program appears to have been successful at hardening a location (the corridor) but was not successful in modifying victim behavior.