Abstract
This article examines the impact of 10 clean-up operations designed to improve the environment. The findings of environmental visual audits undertaken before and after the operations show that the level of refuse declines in only half the cases, with an increase in the other half of cases. This may be explained by the poor engagement with the community that can accompany such operations. These findings show that even the simplest, most ‘common-sense’ interventions can bring about unintended consequences without careful thought to the way in which the intervention is expected to work.
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Notes
On the basis of independent sample t-test: t=−1.810, DF=48, P=0.077.
These differences were not statistically significant (chi square=8.254, DF=4, P=0.83). There were also eight cells (80 per cent) with an expected frequency of less than five.
Although it must be accepted that there may be an increased propensity for such people to throw out rubbish anyway, regardless of whether a clean-up operation is in progress.
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Brown, R., Evans, E. When intervention is a load of rubbish: Evaluating the impact of ‘clean-up’ operations. Crime Prev Community Saf 14, 33–47 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/cpcs.2011.9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/cpcs.2011.9