Using Eye Tracking Devices to Assess Vulnerabilities to Burglary

Assessing vulnerability to burglary: An eye movement study Seven Flores, Thomas Zawisza, & Ray Garza Texas A&M International University, Public Research and Social Research Department & Department of Psychology and Communications

Abstract

Methodology

The present study investigated what characteristics in homes are susceptible to burglary. Previous research has focused primarily on self-report assessments asking participants what areas of a home are vulnerable to being burglarized. Research using objective measurements such as eye tracking devices to measure online visual processing of home vulnerabilities is limited. The current study used eye tracking devices to record visual processing and intuitive responses to a set of 10 houses with varying characteristics. Participants (N = 65) were asked to view the houses and make a decision as to whether the house was susceptible to being burglarized. After visual processing was recorded, a follow up questionnaire was utilized to allow participants to expand on their decision. This study adds to the current literature on vulnerabilities to burglary and cognitive processing by providing insight as to which areas may be of importance when deciding to illegally enter a property and to the cognitive mechanisms that are used when making such decisions.

•  Participants were 65 undergraduate students from Texas A&M International University. •  After the participants were given consent, they were asked to imagine themselves as burglars and told that the houses they were about to rate were found in Laredo, Texas. •  Participants viewed images of 10 Laredo houses that varied in socio economic status value, and were asked to rate whether they would burglarize the house or not (i.e., YES/NO) while their visual perception was being recorded using the eye-link 1000. •  Participants were then given an open-ended self report questionnaire to assess whether they found some houses as being vulnerable to burglary, and if they did, to describe which characteristics made them perceive those houses as being vulnerable to burglary.

•  Research on burglar’s perceptions and decision making have found that on self-report assessments, burglars tend to focus in specific areas such as doors and windows when judging whether houses are vulnerable to burglary. •  There is no current research on eye-tracking devices given that previous studies have depended solely on self-reports from the participants. •  Previous studies rationalize that the more visual attention time spent on a characteristic indicates more time cogitating those characteristics. •  Two main groups of raters were identified. One group preferred to burglarize higher socio economic status houses, while the other group preferred to burglarize lowersocio-economic status houses.

Figure 3

Figure 3

Visual Attention differences in the SES of the houses Figure 4 Total Time

Results

Examples of the stimuli presented to the raters

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Visual Attention time in the 10 houses Figure 1

Figure 1

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Social Economic Status

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Conclusion The eye-tracking technologies in this study found significant differences in visual attention in various house regions that could indicate vulnerability to burglary.

Research Questions

•  When looking at regions of interest (i.e., Windows and Doors) participants focused most of their time towards the windows (Figure 2).

1). What characteristics do participants search for when deciding to burglarize a house? 2). Is there a relationship between how long participants look at certain characteristics and on deciding whether they would burglarize a house?

Visual Fixation Count

Heat Map of Visual Perception

Stimuli

Introduction

Results

Mean Total Time

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Results

•  Houses rated as being vulnerable to burglary received the lowest amount of visual attention (Figure 1). •  Windows received the highest amount of visual fixations (Figure 3).

Figure 2

3). Does the socio economic status of the houses have an effect on visual attention duration?

Figure 2

Visual Attention time in Doors and Windows

4). Is there a relationship between the participant’s eye moments and their self-reports?

•  Participants viewed houses associated with higher social economic status longer (Figure 4). Overall, the results support findings from previous research (Bernasco, 2003) in which specific characteristics are vital for decision making in burglary.

Selected References

Design

Bernasco, W. (2004). How Do Residential Burglars Select Target Areas?: A New Approach to the Analysis of Criminal Location Choice. British Journal of Criminology, 45(3), 296-315.

Eye Tracking Design

Bernasco, W., & Luykx, F. (2003). Effects Of Attractiveness, Opportunity And Accessibility To Burglars On Residential Burglary Rates Of Urban Neighborhoods. Criminology, 41(3), 981-1002.

This explorative study consisted of a within-subjects design where each of the 10 houses were used to create 10 separate conditions to be independently rated.

Wright, R., Logie, R. H., & Decker, S. H. (1995). Criminal Expertise and Offender Decision Making: An Experimental Study of the Target Selection Process in Residential Burglary. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 32(1), 39-53.

T e x a s

A & M

I n t e r n a t i o n a l

U n i v e r s i t y