The proportion of single-person households has long been the highest among all types of households. However, despite this, public safety policies implement only very basic strategies. Therefore, there is a growing need for public safety policies to be developed and implemented based on the specific characteristics of single-person households. This study aim to classify single-person households from various perspectives, examine how the demand for current public safety policies differs, and confirm whether there are differences in perceptions of effectiveness.

  Looking at the key research findings, it has been observed that single-person households have a high willingness to pay for economic costs for crime prevention when they experience crimes such as assault, sexual violence, stalking, and theft. Additionally, since the emotional state of single-person households is more negative compared to multi-person households, factors influencing it need to be identified. urthermore, factors such as having no close friends, limited personal contacts, rare or no late-night returns, and dissatisfaction with life were found to reduce the willingness to pay for economic costs for crime prevention. Finally, with regard to the necessity and effectiveness of public safety policies, it was noted that single-person households demand emergency safety services, but they are not adequately implemented, and unlike multi-person households, life satisfaction does not affect the perception of public safety policy effectiveness in single-person households.

  These research results aim to provide evidence for the concretization and improvement of public safety policies for single-person households. As such, it is important to clarify that the results are limited in terms of policy recommendations for specific types of single-person households. However, this paper would like to mention some policy suggestions on how to approach public safety policies for single-person households in a more specific manner.

  First, when a crime occurs targeting single-person households, it can be predicted that the willingness to pay for economic costs for crime prevention will increase relative to other households. Therefore, support for victims should facilitate financial assistance for these economic costs. Particularly, considering stalking and sexual violence, which can be closely related to single-person households and are more commonly targeted at women, additional support policies for women and public safety policies for prevention need to be reviewed. Currently, strategies are heavily focused on Target Hardening, and it is the right time to consider what other strategies should be implemented. In the case of stalking, the likelihood of occurrence in intimate relationships is high. Therefore, even if devices are installed to make intrusion difficult, there is an inherent risk that a former spouse or partner can easily access, making prevention challenging.

  Another aspect is that policies to prevent single-person households from being isolated should be developed and supplemented based on the results that single-person households tend to have more negative emotional states than multi-person households.

  Although current policies, such as self-reliance support, have this aspect, policies for depression, isolation, and loneliness differ somewhat. Policies related to community strategies seem more suitable, but there is a need to concretize policies for the participation of the younger age group (20s to 30s) in these community strategies. Some may question the relevance of efforts to improve emotional well-being to public safety policy. However, addressing emotional states to alleviate fears of crime is sufficient to fulfill the purpose of public safety policy.

  In addition, other policing-relevant characteristics of single-person households include having no close friends, limited personal contacts, rare or no late-night returns, and dissatisfaction with life, all of which are reported to lower willingness to pay for crime prevention. This could be paradoxically interpreted to mean that people are less willing to pay for crime prevention when they are already isolated, so it is important to provide preventive education or practical crime prevention support in response to isolation and after isolation.

  Finally, even with a very basic examination, it is evident that the current security policies are not being implemented concretely. The analysis shows that single-person households would like to see specific safety-related services during emergencies. On the other hand, the effectiveness of such services is lower compared to the necessity, and these results indicate that public funds are not being provided for the appropriate demand. Therefore, at the macro level, this research would like to raise the alarm that it is not time to over-invest national or local budgets in public safety policies, but to first categorize the appropriate characteristics of single-person households, confirm the demand for public safety policies accordingly, and then implement and develop such policies.