Most of us have the expectation of safety and security within our homes. However, when someone forcibly enters our home we tend to feel violated, question our personal safety, and some even lose place attachment, which means home no longer feels like home.

From first-hand knowledge, I can speak of the physical and emotional impacts of being victimized by intruders. During the past year, homes in my neighborhood had been systematically entered through forcible means. At neighborhood meetings many of the neighbors spoke of overwhelming feelings which they described as similar to that of rape. They described such an overwhelming feeling of being violated. My neighbor who was victimized on Christmas Eve day was so distraught that she has not yet fully recovered from the event. She and her husband have decided to sell their home and move to a gated community.

In April, it was my turn. Three 16-year-old boys decided to ditch school and turn my home into a party house. While I routinely write and speak of the importance of defensible space, and walk my talk, I found the defensible space measures I had implemented for my own home failed to stop them. Instead of coming home to peace and tranquility, I came home to chaos.

So the same thing doesn't happen to you and your clients, let me share my defensible space measures and then discuss the weaknesses that allowed my home to be violated.

My property is located on a street where most of the homes have tall hedge lines blocking the view of the house. My home, along with a few others, is among the minority that utilizes desert landscaping. This style of landscaping keeps the front of the house completely exposed from the street. On the side of the house is a six-foot fence with decorative sharp metal points in the shape of diamonds lining the top. This fence protects the house’s utility outlets. To enter this area, there is a door that is secured with a double key dead bolt. Meaning that a key must be used on both sides to lock or unlock the door.

The kids who broke into my home bent over the diamond points and then scaled the wall. Upon entering the utility area they proceeded to cut the telephone line and disable the electric, as well as compromise the watering system. Since most security services rely on a telephone call to warn of an intruder, the cut telephone cord rendered that aspect of my defenses useless. Additionally, the sirens associated with a compromised security system were also rendered ineffective because they were tied to the electricity. Hence, my first three lines of defense (neighbors, security service, and alarm) were all rendered ineffective. Because this area had a double key deadbolt in place, the kids decided take the locks apart to open the door. Please note that this door is only to the utility portion of the property, not the house.

Because I like natural light, I have many sets of French doors and windows. Each set of doors is always secured with a double-key deadbolt and the windows, which slide, have sticks placed in the tracks in addition to the window lock. My architectural mistake, which compromised my defenses, was my use of double doors. Each of the French doors along the back of the house was shaken so strongly that the upper and lower latches of the secondary door were compromised in some way. One set ultimately became so compromised that the kids were able to work the lock and open the door. The defensible space lesson here is that it is better to use one very large door rather than double doors because it is less likely shake a solitary door secured to a wall than it is to shake a door secured to another door that opens.

Once the kids were in the house, they struck the motherload. My mother who is in the midst of moving from New England to Palm Springs had many of her possessions in the house. The kids proceeded to rifle through every aspect of the home; dumped over potted plants, emptying each pot of its soil; riffled through the freezer, refrigerator, and wet bar. They found my mother’s jewelry, which we thought was very well hidden. Of course the kids took the jewelry and the usual techy stuff, but they also took some very bizarre things such as a set of coasters, my father’s spare dentures, and some tourist junk from China.

As a means of defensible space, I made sure nothing of value was ever left in the open, and by having the double key deadbolts on all of the doors I made sure that items couldn’t readily leave the property, at least through the doors. However, this didn’t stop these kids because they took the time to remove the screw covers, which had been glued over the screw heads, and then preceded to take apart the locks. Being polite thieves, they did leave all of the hardware in a nice pile next to the disassembled lock.

As an expert in defensible space measures, I tell people to ensure maximum visibility to their home, which is what I did. I also tell people to use double key dead bolts because the thieves cannot get out of the house except through a window, which will limit what they take. My mistake, which compromised my defenses, was the double doors, and I should have superglued the screw caps into the screw heads that held the locks in place. Ergo, large single doors with double key dead bolts are much better than double doors or sliding doors which can popped from their track with relative ease. I also had security systems, which were disarmed in about five minutes. However, newer homes have the telephone and electric lines built into the wall of the home and converge in a box outside of the home. If you are lucky enough to have this feature, place a lock on the box, but more importantly place a sensor on this box so that if the box is tampered with it can send the signal before the lines are cut.

Now comes the question of, do defensible space notions help in protecting a home? The answer is yes. While the kids were not caught in my home, they were caught in one of the other homes, which was also clearly visible from the street. It was a neighbor who noted suspicious activity in the house, knew that the owners were out of town and phoned the police. On a drive-by, the police also noticed my bent-over fenceline, which suggested that my house had also been victimized.

Incidentally, the first homes that were victimized in this crime spree were homes that had tall hedges in front of the property. One of the cops later told me that the kids made the comment that my house was one of the hardest houses to penetrate, but followed up with the caveat that they "always get in."

The bottom line here is that if the thief wants to get in, he will. However, I believe that it was the defensible space concepts that lead my house to be one of the last targeted, and it was these concepts that ultimately lead to the capture of these little gremlins.

Published: May 11, 2004

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

David Alan Kopec "DAK" has a Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology with a concentration in perception and design and two master's degrees, one in Architecture and another in Community Psychology. He also has a bachelor's degree in community/public health, is certified by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC), a member of Interior Design Education Council (IDEC), and studied the practice and principles of Feng Shui in China. Among DAK's most notable accomplishments include the completion of the first textbook on environmental psychology for design, published by Fairchild Books, which won ASID's 2006 Joel Polsky Prize. He has also authored two monographs; the first analyzes the Americans with Disabilities Act along with the common issues faced by an elderly population, published by ASID. The second monograph discusses the design of long-term care facilities in a multicultural society. This is being published by NCIDQ. Currently DAK is working on a second textbook that analyzes health, sustainability and design. Fairchild Books will release this book in the Spring of 2008. Also, DAK is a 2006 award recipient from Rebuilding Together San Diego. DAK is an Associate Professor of Design at the Newschool of Architecture and Design. In addition, DAK has a private practice, provides consulting services and educational lectures at events such as Neo-Con World’s Trade Fair in Chicago, the annual leadership conference for the American Society for Interior Designers (ASID), and dozens of physician conferences and meetings.