Does Leaving Your Lights On Deter Burglars? What 2026 Data Says Before You Travel

No — leaving a single light on, especially one that burns the same hours every night, does not reliably deter an experienced burglar. Research built on interviews with actual convicted burglars shows that visible alarms and cameras change far more minds than a lit window. With Thanksgiving 2026 falling on November 26 and millions of homes about to sit empty for days, that distinction matters more than ever.

AAA hasn't published its Thanksgiving 2026 forecast yet, but last year set a record: 81.8 million Americans traveled at least 50 miles from home over Thanksgiving 2025, about 1.6 million more than the year before, with nearly 90% driving and roughly 6 million flying (AAA, 2025). Travel volumes like that mean millions of houses sit empty for days at a stretch — exactly the condition burglars say they look for — and this year's numbers are shaping up to bring more of the same.

What does the research actually say about lights deterring burglars?

The most frequently cited criminological research on this question isn't about lighting at all — it's about what burglars themselves say moves the needle, and lighting barely registers next to it. In a landmark study funded by the Alarm Industry Research and Educational Foundation, Dr. Joseph B. Kuhns of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte surveyed 422 incarcerated burglars across North Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio about how they chose and avoided targets (UNC Charlotte, 2013).

The findings centered on two visible security measures, not ambient lighting:

• 83% of surveyed burglars said they would try to determine whether a home had an alarm before attempting entry, and 60% said they'd pick a different target if they found one (Electronic Security Association summary of UNC Charlotte study, 2013).
• Nearly 60% said they'd factor in cameras or surveillance equipment when choosing a target, and more than 40% said spotting one would make them walk away and pick another house (Electronic Security Association summary of UNC Charlotte study, 2013).

Lighting simply wasn't where the deterrent power showed up in burglars' own accounts. A light that's on at 2 a.m. every single night, whether or not anyone is home, isn't a security signal — it's just a light. Something that signals active monitoring, like a visible camera, moved far more burglars off a target than ambient light ever did.

When do most burglaries actually happen?

Another reason the "leave a light on" strategy misses the point: most residential burglaries don't happen at night in the first place. FBI data for 2024 recorded 216,601 daytime residential burglaries compared with 174,053 at night — meaning more burglaries happened while the sun was up than after dark (FBI, 2024). Burglars are generally after an empty house, not darkness to hide in, and houses are emptiest on weekday afternoons and during multi-day trips — like the Thanksgiving holiday itself.

There is good news in the same dataset: the national burglary rate fell to 229.2 per 100,000 people in 2024, the lowest level in the FBI's records going back to at least 1961, with total burglaries dropping to 779,542 (FBI, 2024). Burglary is rarer than it's been in decades — but a holiday week with the house empty for days is still exactly the scenario the data says burglars prefer.

A single porch light that's always on isn't a security signal — it's just a light.

What actually works better than a light left on?

If a light timer isn't the answer, what is? Based on what burglars themselves report responding to, a few concrete steps outperform ambient lighting:

• Visible camera, not a dark window
• Vary the pattern, don't repeat it
• Keep footage off-site, not on-site
• Skip posting travel dates publicly

A camera that's actually recording — and whose footage lives somewhere other than a device sitting inside the house that could walk out the door with the burglar — addresses the exact gap that a porch light can't. This is one of the more practical uses for an old phone that's sitting in a drawer: an app like iCameraPlus can turn it into a continuous security camera that uploads to a private cloud archive you can check from the web, so if the house is empty for the long Thanksgiving weekend, you can glance in on it remotely instead of hoping a timer bulb does the work.

For a broader look at how many cameras a typical home actually needs and where to place them, see iCameraPlus's home security camera guide. And since the house will likely sit empty for the holiday itself, Do Break-Ins Really Spike During the Holidays? What a New 2026 Survey Found looks at whether break-ins actually rise around Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.

Does a camera really change a burglar's decision?

According to the same UNC Charlotte research, yes — more so than almost any other visible deterrent researchers asked about besides an alarm. Nearly 60% of the burglars surveyed said surveillance equipment factored into which house they targeted, and over 40% said it was enough to make them choose a different one entirely (Electronic Security Association summary of UNC Charlotte study, 2013). That's a far larger share than any study has attached to ambient lighting alone.

Quick answers

Should I still leave a light on when I travel? It won't hurt, but don't rely on it alone — treat it as one small part of making the home look lived-in, alongside things like a car in the driveway or asking a neighbor to collect mail, not a substitute for an alarm or a camera.

Is it better to leave lights on a timer or just leave one on constantly? A timer that varies is a slightly better signal of activity than a light burning nonstop for days, but neither was the deterrent burglars in the UNC Charlotte study said mattered most — alarms and visible cameras were.

What's the single most useful thing to do before a multi-day trip like Thanksgiving? Make sure something is actually watching and recording the property, and that you can check on it remotely — whether that's a dedicated camera or a spare phone repurposed for the job — rather than leaving the house to rely on light timers and guesswork.

Sources

• AAA, "Nearly 82 Million Travelers Expected to Travel over Thanksgiving," 2025
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte, "Through the Eyes of a Burglar," 2013
• Electronic Security Association, summary of UNC Charlotte burglar survey, 2013
• FBI, "FBI Releases 2024 Reported Crimes in the Nation Statistics," 2024