To wonder about changing attitudes to household security

[Ifyougivethefirstyouvegottogivethesecond]

When I was a kid in the 80s my grandparents only locked their door when they were in bed or had gone out. When they went they used the back door, locked it, and then hung the key on a hook on the inside of a small cubby hole next to the front door, accessible to anyone.

My parents had one set of keys and would hide the key (badly) under a brick next to the door.

I wouldn’t dream of doing this stuff. Is that because crime is higher? Or the type of crime? Or did I just have a family who were very lax when it came to security?

Yes, this!

Burglary rates in particular are at an all time low.
This is attributed to it being harder to break and enter as we have more security but less regular hours, but especially as 'stuff' is worth less relatively now, and harder to sell on and easier to track.

Growing up I remember my parents always locked the doors, there wasn't a key under the doormat etc. This was in the 80's/90's in suburbia.

Compared to me I lock the doors but have the addition of security cameras etc. Maybe it's because we're more aware of crime now rather than just relying what is printed in a paper or reported in the news like back in those days.

My doors are always locked even when we're in. My MIL lives pretty close to us and on two occasions now has had random people walk into her house! Both times a case of mistaken identity, but still pretty scary..

I lived in a considered-rough urban area and twice went to work leaving my key in th front door, came home to my key still in the front door and nobody having been in the house (living on a busy main road with no front garden too!).

Since moving semi-rural, we've left the front door unlocked overnight a few times, but also left the car unlocked with the doors wide open and it again was there the next morning.

Generally we keep the doors locked as we have a toddler who likes to try and escape. I think now people have heard of more and more interesting ways people have been burgled so just have a greater awareness of things like leaving keys on a hook by the door rather than necessarily higher crime.

Crime is very much higher.

I'd keep an arsenal here if I could.

Safety first.

We have much more security than my parents ever had but then they were burgled and we were burgled. It changes everything.

I live in big cities and I only lock my door at night or when I go out (I’ve been burgled once, but the house was locked up then). My brother lives in a small town and doesn’t lock his door unless he’s going on holiday, he’s never been burgled.

But I think people have got more security conscious. Burglary rates seems to be down from when I was a kid in the 80s but more people are worried about being burgled. I think most people have more to lose now. There wasn’t a lot in our house when I was a kid. A (rented) TV, which would have been difficult to do a runner with, and later a huge honking Betamax video machine. My mum had a diamond engagement ring she never took off and few bits of nice but fairly inexpensive jewelry. Nowadays, most people I know, even ones who work in Tesco or the like, have multiple bits of electronics and pieces of expensive jewelry. There are still people who don’t have much like this, but a lot more people do. so it’s not surprising they feel like more of a target and are more prepared to d things to try to protect what they have.

I also think we’ve been sold the idea the world is more dangerous by the media and it’s hard to throw that off.

My front door is a yale lock so locks when the door is closed but I often leave it on the latch if I'm in. I just make sure that it's locked before I go to bed or if I go out.

Back door is mostly locked but if I've used it then I leave it unlocked until I go to bed or go out.

I live in a small town and it feels very safe.

Those Crimestoppers ads in the 80s/90s used to absolutely terrify little me. I can still hear that creepy music now. I’d turn the channel if I was close enough to the TV!

Also only lock at night and if I am out.

Anyone wandering in is going to find themselves on the wrong side of the dog pretty quickly.

But mostly, I can never sit still so I am in and out of the doors all day long, gardening etc. I can't be doing with locking and unlocking all the time.

We were burgled twice growing up and lived in a rough area. Yet parents left back door open all day and front door unlocked. And still do now.

My in laws are the same and so is dh, I have to make sure I lock the door when he comes in. He thinks if we are awake and in the house it's not a problem.

Front door is always locked since an incident when someone burst into the house unexpectedly.

Also have a letter box lock which goes on every night.

We have more expensive stuff inside our houses now so maybe that's it. As a child we had one crap rented TV and a twin tub. Can't imagine anyone breaking in for that. Now my house is full of tech and we have expensive so I'm a bit more aware of leaving the door unlocked.

My house has never been burgled, though I've had someone break into a back passage and steal a bike from my garden during lockdown. My impression is that face to face crime is less than it used to be 40 years ago, but much more than it was 80 years ago. What I do notice is a nonstop barrage of phone and online scams, which I've been caught out by twice and which entangled my dad, and which have affected my workplace. Those make me feel vulnerable even though they don't in themselves affect my house.

I've also had a colleague have a professional house burglary for her car keys only as she had a new (not particularly exciting) car. They were in the house less than 30 seconds but she was asleep upstairs and not surprisingly her house is Fort Knox since.

In general I do what I consider a moderate amount of security in that I'm much less careless han I used to be and doors/gates are locked, but they're not high security locks and we don't have lights or alarms as I think they're much more likely to annoy than help. As dp and I wfh a lot, the house is less empty than it used to be as well.

We were burgled twice when I was a kid (same house, outskirts of London) and after that every house was like Fort Knox. We moved to the countryside years later, same deal, and we had petty theft from the garden there.

I keep my doors locked at all times and don’t leave keys under a plant pot etc. My friends do though, and it blows my mind that I could just let myself into their house as they’ve told me where the key is! Obviously I’d never do it, but to be so lax on home security is extraordinary to me.

My attitude is similar to what your parents' was. My husband doesn't even lock the car when it's on the drive! Our front door locks automatically, but the back door is open all the time we're in the house. I have quite often left a key under a brick for people who were going to arrive while I was out. It would never occur to me not to open the door to someone, snd I've never had a chain on my front door in any house I've lived in! We do now live in an area with low crime though.

We had our back door lock snapped for the car keys - luckily the dog barked and they ran off. It was such a shock and since then we have changed all locks for anti snap ones, patlocks on patio doors, security lights, proper padlock in the rear gate and cctv. Our doors are always locked unless we are in the garden. Our little village is rife for car crime at the minute 😥

I remember when my parents would leave the door unlocked all day and my mother would nip out to the shops and leave the door unlocked. When Thatcher got into power and life became harder for many, burglary increased drastically and people started locking their doors more often.

I do all of these and it's never been a problem. To be fair we live in a cheap area and don't have much worth stealing, so probably less incentive to rob us?

Crime is not particularly higher, especially these types of crime. Fear of crime is a different thing of course and generally that is higher.

There are also more serious crime organizations these days, so it is not just an average "vagrant". Also people currently have less confidence the police will pay attention to their crime and investigate all possible leads.

People consider other factors like insurance, hassle or replacement of goods, and generally people are more consumerist focus now so really care about having a good TV etc.

Our doors are only locked when we go to bed (if we remember), we never locked our flat in London, but no one really bothered in the block either.

Is it though?

Lived rurally/in small towns almost all my life and only lock the door when I'm going out or to bed.

I have a big dog who barks loudly whenever anyone comes in the garden though, so I don't worry too much about security as he's a good deterrent (he's actually friendly and would just want an intruder to pet him/play but if you could just hear him you wouldn't know that)

I only lock doors if I’m going to bed or going out.

I appreciate that some people don’t get to choose where they live, but having to live somewhere that you only feel safe if you lock yourself in must be really stressful tbh.

Where I live (rural uk) a lot of people still never lock their doors, I know because I’m a dog walker and I have a lot of clients who leave their doors unlocked all the time or ‘hide’ a key in a really obvious place! I actually rarely lock mine unless we are asleep and quite often leave it unlocked when I go out during the day, my house has absolutely nothing of value in it and a large, stranger aggressive dog in it though so I’m not too concerned about someone getting in.