ABSTRACT
The two preceding chapters have substantiated the premise that active residential guardianship in the form of the visible availability of residents, monitoring by residents over their surroundings and intervention by residents when they observe crime or related activities in their residential space can help protect against crime. They have also established the fact that opportunities for residents to fulfil the function of guardians over their residential space abound in spatio-physical and socio-demographic features of their environment. With these essentials confirmed, this chapter concentrates on residents themselves to uncover more about the processes involved in the stages of guardianship. This chapter therefore focuses the spotlight on the processes involved in monitoring by residents. It attempts to uncover why the process of monitoring or supervision over surroundings is so important for effective residential guardianship and how residents are able to detect potential offenders or criminal activity when it occurs in their residential space. Probing these issues is intended to illuminate vital information for residents about how they can boost their effectiveness in guarding against crime. 1
