What changes can I make to the outside of my home to prevent a violent attack by a stranger?
You can make your home much safer just by spending a little time planning for how you use your property, the times of day that you come and go, and how you approach your house. For example, if you normally work during the day and you come home after dark, it's a good idea to anticipate that and have the lights on outside your home. Now, rather than leave the lights on 24 hours a day, you buy an inexpensive light timer at a home improvement centre that will turn the lights on at 5, for example. Or, take your garage; if you pull into the garage you have an automatic opener; you have one that's such where the door opens, and the light comes on automatically. This makes the approach to the house much safer. If you approach your house to your front door, you want to make sure that your foliage and your bushes are trimmed back. Some standard rules of thumb for that are keeping hedges and bushes trimmed down to about 3' in height. It's very difficult for someone to crouch or hide behind it. If you have trees that have a lot of leaves on them, trim those up from the bottom about 6' up from the ground, again, so you can see anyone standing. It takes away all those opportunities. So, when you come home late at night, park on the street and walk up to your front door and your lights are on, you can clearly see before walking up to the door with key in hand that there's no one around. You can make your environment a little safer just by a little preparation; a little planning.
