An Examination of Situational Crime Prevention Strategies Across Convenience Stores and Fast-Food Restaurants

By: M. Lyn Exum, Joseph B. Kuhns, Brad Koch, and Chuck Johnson

Although the efficacy of situational crime prevention (SCP) strategies on convenience store safety has received considerable attention, the security of fast-food restaurants has been virtually ignored. This study was based on a population of convenience stores (n = 295) and fast-food restaurants (n = 321) in Charlotte, North Carolina. The study examined whether the crime control strategies commonly recommended to the convenience store industry were effective at reducing robbery in the fast-food industry. Relatedly, the study examined whether target-hardening strategies have similar effects on robbery prevalence rates across the two types of businesses. In general, the article found that many target-hardening strategies derived from the literature failed to impact robbery rates for either type of establishment. For those factors that did emerge as statistically significant predictors of robbery, the preventative effects generally appeared in one type of establishment or the other, but not in both. These findings suggest that effective SCP strategies are truly situation-specific and not “one size fits all.”

Criminal Justice Policy Review 2010 21: 269, 11 November 2009 DOI: 10.1177/0887403409346110