Most security professionals will say that installing surveillance cameras on the outside of your home or business is an effective method of deterring criminals from choosing you as a target. Is this just a marketing pitch to get you to buy cameras, or are there actual statistics to prove this?

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte conducted a study in 2012 that sheds light on the subject and gives us a better understanding of what is going on in a burglar’s mind when selecting a target. The University’s study, titled “Understanding Decisions to Burglarize from the Offender’s Perspective,” surveyed 422 incarcerated male and female burglars and asked them a number of questions about choosing a target, motivation for burglary, and the question that we will focus on in this article; the effectiveness of alarm and security camera systems.

What deters burglars from burglarizing specific targets? The data reflects that a significant majority of offenders were influenced by the presence of security systems. About 83% of the offenders would try to determine if there was an alarm before pursuing a target, while roughly 60% said that such a system would cause them to choose another target. In the event that the burglar noticed Surveillance Cameras or triggered an audible alarm after they had begun the attempt, 50% of offenders said that they would discontinue the robbery, 37% said that they sometimes still went through with the burglary, while 13% said that they always continued with the attempt. “Within this broad set of potential target hardening deterrents, alarms and outdoor cameras and other surveillance equipment were considered by a majority of burglars.”