Gasoline Drive-offs: Designing a Less Convenient Environment

Recent studies of convenience store crime have focused on robberies, but gasoline thefts are a troublesome and often overlooked public policy problem that drain valuable police resources. An analysis of calls for service from 38 convenience stores in Austin, TX reveals that gasoline drive-qffs account for 48% of all convenience store calls. This paper ties the environmental characteristics and business practices of convenience stores to reported gasoline drive-qffs. The findings suggest that removing signs from windows, installing brighter lights and instituting a pay-first policy can deter such crimes. Over just a two-year period, an Austin, TX convenience store was criminally victimized not once, not twice, but 385 times (Austin Police Department. 1090). Ninety percent of these victimizations were gasoline drive-offs (offenders filling their tanks with gas and driving off without paying); the others consisted of shoplifting, disturbances and acts of criminal mischief. Why is this store so attractive to criminals—particularly those who steal gas? It could be that the store is located in a high-crime neighborhood. Or perhaps the clerks are fearful of crime and are therefore vulnerable to victimization. And there is always the possibility that the store has certain business practices that encourage particular crimes. Patrol officers spend thousands of hours responding to convenience store incidents. In the year 1990 alone, Austin convenience stores reported over 6.000 thefts (Austin Police Department. 1990). The strain on patrol officers* time in responding to convenience store calls for service translates into higher costs for police services as cities are pressured to hire more Address correspondence to: Nancy G. LaVigne, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 15 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102.