by

Matthew Traucht

What might be the psychological effect of some criminal occurrence that drastically alters our sense of security within the home? In our globalized society with sensations of security decreasing constantly, oftentimes we feel safest in our immediate neighborhoods and in our houses. But everyday in the US, thousands of home territories are invaded and we are left feeling violated and out of control.

When someone invades our territory, more is damaged than just a window and more is taken than just our possessions. Changing the locks, sweeping up the broken glass, having our property replaced by an insurance company does not necessarily bring back a feeling of security. Part of being human is a dependency upon and trust in others. From the earliest stages of childhood, it is our experience to trust those around us for subsistence, warmth, and safety. As adolescents we learn to trust history books and social studies classes. We trust that the police are not corrupt and that on-coming traffic will not collide with us head on.

Our societies exist because of an agreement of co-existence and cooperation. According to the observations of a troop of baboons at the Amboseli Game Reserve of Kenya, “the larger the troop, the greater its store of accumulated information and its security from predators” (emphasis mine). The city in which I live might be considered an evolutionary adaptation from this troop, but it seems that as the troop size increases to a point of non-familiarity the security is lessened. Whether we live in caves, on wide-open plains, huts, or red-brick flats we have come to expect that our home will remain free of invasion.

Thus, intrusive actions upon our territories might leave someone feeling that they have lost more than just property. When I walked out to my car this morning I found shattered glass in the driveway less than one-hundred feet from where I had been sleeping inside. My car had been vandalized, the steering column was torn to shreds, and my Fishing With John compact disc was gone. Hearing about crime on the news and knowing that it is out there lurking on the streets is an entirely different feeling than experiencing it first hand. Strangely, though I do not know the person who broke into my car, I feel like I’ve lost my ability to trust him or her. In societies, we generally have confidence that members of our own territory will not invade us. Towns and cities are “troops” of people who have evolved alongside the internal mechanisms of security and virtue. Societies are adaptations that humans have made to provide themselves with security from the environment outside, from the ravages of nature, and from harmful or frightening violations of the breach of this territory. Perhaps the most troubling thing about this is that we cannot go home to escape these territorial types of dispute. Contestation and defense of territory is exactly what political and social boundaries are designed for but a negative effect created alongside these adaptations is a loss of the security once inherent in the group mentality.

Research on troops of baboons as reported in: Pfeiffer, John E. (1969) The Emergence of Man. Pg 287. Harper & Row: New York.