Hot Spots Policing

Criminology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy Kochel ◽  
Seyvan Nouri
Keyword(s):  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Control Cost ◽  
Hot Spots Policing ◽  
Diffusion Of Benefits ◽  
National Institute Of Justice

Since the 1980s, the nature of policing has expanded beyond a person-focused approach to include a location-based approach. Recently developed proactive policing strategies that are concerned with the geographic distribution and explanation of crime include hot spots policing and community policing, and oftentimes problem-oriented policing, broken windows policing, third-party policing, and focused deterrence strategies. Hot spots policing entails focusing police efforts at crime prevention in a very small geographic area where crime concentrates. This strategy is one of only a few policing strategies grounded in both theory and research. Crime concentrates at places even more than it concentrates in people. Research in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the 1980s demonstrated that 60 percent of the crime occurs at 6 percent of places (see Sherman, et al. 1989, cited under Theory and Basis of Hot Spots Policing). Place-based theories about routine activities and rational choice have led to deterrence-based strategies such as directed patrol, crackdowns, and other traditional approaches to hot spots policing, as well as more community-oriented, problem-solving, and situational crime prevention approaches at crime hot spots. Hot spots policing is one of few areas in criminal justice research that has been tested using randomized controlled trials, a gold standard for research. Several systematic reviews suggest that focusing police efforts in a small geographic area reduces crime. Furthermore, research on displacement and diffusion of benefits suggests that hot spots policing does not merely geographically displace crime. In fact, nearby places may experience a diffusion of crime benefits. Only a few studies have examined the noncrime impacts of hot spots policing, but these suggest that it does not harm public perceptions of police and may even promote informal social control. Cost-effectiveness analyses have been partially used to assess the relative costs and outcomes of hot spot policing interventions. Additionally, existing research has suggested the crime harm index (CHI) for assessing the crime impact of hot spot policing interventions. Several data sources are available from past National Institute of Justice–funded studies on hot spots of crime and hot spots policing.

Crime Mapping and Crime Analysis of Property Crimes in Jodhpur

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swikar Lama ◽  
Sikandar Singh Rathore
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Crime Analysis ◽  
Crime Mapping ◽  
Property Crimes

AbstractThis study is based on crime mapping and crime analysis of property crimes in Jodhpur. The property crimes which were selected were house breaking, auto thefts and chain snatching. Data from police stations were used to generate the maps to locate hot spots of crimes. The profile of these hot spots was analyzed through observations supplemented with interviews of police officers and public 100 cases of house breaking and 100 cases of auto thefts were further analyzed to understand the contexts which lead to these crimes. These contexts are in consonance with situational crime prevention theories. This study may help to understand the environmental factors which may be responsible for certain places becoming hot spot areas of property crimes in Jodhpur.

Crime Hot Spots

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Weisburd ◽  
Sean Wire
Keyword(s):  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Routine Activity Theory ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Routine Activity ◽  
Crime Concentration ◽  
Hot Spots Policing ◽  
Crime Hot Spots ◽  
Criminology Of Place ◽  
Traditional Paradigm

Hot spots of crime, and the criminology of place more generally, deviate from the traditional paradigm of criminology, in which the primary assumption and goal is to explain who is likely to commit crime and their motivations, and to explore interventions aimed at reducing individual criminality. Alternatively, crime hot spots account for the “where” of crime, specifically referring to the concentration of crime in small geographic areas. The criminology of place demands a rethinking in regard to how we understand the crime problem and offers alternate ways to predict, explain, and prevent crime. While place, as large geographic units, has been important since the inception of criminology as a discipline, research examining crime concentrations at a micro-geographic level has only recently begun to be developed. This approach has been facilitated by improvements to data availability, technology, and the understanding of crime as a function of the environment. The new crime and place paradigm is rooted in the past three decades of criminological research centered on routine activity theory, crime concentrations, and hot spots policing. The focus on crime hot spots has led to several core empirical findings. First, crime is meaningfully concentrated, such that a large proportion of crime events occur at relatively few places within larger geographies like cities. This may be termed the law of crime concentration at places (see Weisburd, 2015). Additionally, most hot spots of crime are stable over time, and thus present promising opportunities for crime prevention. Crime hot spots vary within higher geographic units, suggesting both that there is a loss of information at higher levels of aggregation and that there are clear “micro communities” within the larger conceptualization of a neighborhood. Finally, crime at place is predictable, which is important for being able to understand why crime is concentrated in one place and not another, as well as to develop crime prevention strategies. These empirical characteristics of crime hot spots have led to the development of successful police interventions to reduce crime. These interventions are generally termed hot spots policing.

Community Crime Prevention in High–Crime Areas: The Seattle Neighborhood Group Hot Spots Project

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1143-1167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cody W. Telep ◽  
Julie Hibdon
Keyword(s):  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Interrupted Time Series ◽  
Interrupted Time Series Analysis ◽  
Catchment Areas ◽  
Community Crime Prevention ◽  
High Crime ◽  
Current Concerns

Hot spots policing, in which police resources are directed toward small geographic areas with high crime levels, has been widely implemented and evaluated, but less is known about the effectiveness of nonpolice efforts to address high–crime locations. Here, we examine the effectiveness of two hot spot interventions led by a community–based nonprofit organization in Seattle, Washington. We use interrupted time series analysis to assess changes in total calls, as well as drug and disorder events at each site and in catchment areas surrounding each site. We find evidence of significant postintervention declines in calls for one treatment site and a decline in disorder in the second site. Overall, the results provide initial evidence that community–led crime prevention efforts can have a positive impact on calls in crime and disorder hot spots without significant spatial displacement of crime and disorder. Furthermore, these approaches may be an optimal response to residential hot spots in particular, given current concerns about community reactions to intensive police approaches focused primarily on enforcement.

Data-Informed and Place-Based Violent Crime Prevention: The Kansas City, Missouri Risk-Based Policing Initiative

2021 ◽  
pp. 109861112110032
Author(s):  
Joel M. Caplan ◽  
Leslie W. Kennedy ◽  
Grant Drawve ◽  
Jonas H. Baughman
Keyword(s):  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Kansas City ◽  
Intervention Program ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Outcome Evaluation ◽  
Problem Analysis ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Diffusion Of Benefits

The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department sought to reduce violent crime with an evidence-based approach to problem analysis and intervention planning. Informed by hot spot analysis and risk terrain modeling, police and their community partners implemented a place-based crime intervention program focused on key attractors and generators of the environmental backcloth. Target and comparison areas were selected for an outcome evaluation. During the 1-year program time period, violent crimes decreased significantly by over 22%. There was both a significant spatial diffusion of benefits and significantly fewer police officer-initiated actions resulting in arrests or citations. Crime prevention was achieved without an abundance of law enforcement actions against people located at the target areas. Implications for policy and practice are discussed within the contexts of police responses to urgent crime problems and data analytics.

A View Inside the “Black Box” of Hot Spots Policing From a Sample of Police Commanders

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cory P. Haberman
Keyword(s):  
Hot Spots ◽  
Causal Model ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Causal Models ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Hot Spots Policing ◽  
Theoretical Rationale ◽  
Control Theories

This study used observations of crime strategy meetings and interviews with police commanders to “get inside the black box of hot spots policing.” The findings focus on what the studied police commanders believed they were doing and why they believed those tactics would be effective during hot spots policing implemented under non-experimental conditions. An example causal model for the effectiveness of hot spots policing that emerged from the data is presented. While the commanders’ views aligned with commonly used policing tactics and crime control theories, their underlying theoretical rationale is complex. The presented model provides one causal model that could be tested in future hot spots policing evaluations, and a discussion is presented of how the study’s methodology can be applied in other jurisdictions to define localized causal models and improve hot spot policing evaluations.

Third Party Policing

Criminology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Ransley
Keyword(s):  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Government Regulation ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Focused Deterrence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Third Party Policing ◽  
Causes Of Crime

The major premise of third party policing is that police on their own cannot succeed in reducing many crime and disorder problems. Instead, they need to draw on the social control mechanisms held by other government and community actors. Third party policing occurs when police leverage the powers or legal levers held by those other actors or partners to help control or reduce crime or disorder. The move for police to work through partners has accelerated due to trends in governance, the increasing scope of government regulation, and the expectation that communities will help co-produce public safety. At a time when many police agencies face budget restrictions, encouraging others to assume some crime control responsibility becomes especially important. These trends have expanded how crime can be regulated and prevented in ways that do not rest only on traditional criminal law or justice processes. Typical police partners include regulators, businesses, property owners, and schools. Legal levers include property or fire codes, liquor regulation, rental contracts, and school suspension or discipline powers. Police seek to activate or escalate their partners’ use of these non-criminal powers, either cooperatively or coercively, so as to extend the range of policing influence over problem places, people, or situations. Therefore, third party policing is both proactive, in that it is focused on addressing and reducing the causes of crime and disorder, and problem-oriented, in that it seeks to do so by analyzing and resolving recurrent, underlying problems. The focus on places, people, and situations also aligns with situational crime prevention techniques, such as hots spots policing and focused deterrence. But third party policing is differentiated from these other approaches through its reliance on the legal levers of partners. The first section in this entry outlines how third party policing has developed over the past twenty years. There are also sections on the role and use of regulation in policing, the contribution of civil remedies to crime prevention, descriptions of the multiple contexts in which third party policing has been adopted, factors that promote successful partnerships, assessments of outcomes and effectiveness, and issues to do with ethics and accountability.

Offender and family member perceptions after an offender-focused hot spots policing strategy

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto G. Santos
Keyword(s):  
Hot Spots ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Hot Spots Policing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Diffusion Of Benefits ◽  
Policing Strategy ◽  
Positive Feelings ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how both offenders and their families perceived their interactions with police and whether there were negative consequences of the offender-focused strategy that was implemented in a hot spots policing experiment. Design/methodology/approach Data from interviews of 32 offenders and 29 family members are examined qualitatively for themes to evaluate how the strategy was carried out and how it impacted offenders’ behavior and both groups’ perceptions of the police detectives and the strategy overall. Findings The results show that there was overwhelming agreement by both offenders and their family members that the police detectives who contacted them treated both groups with dignity and respect. After the contact was over, the offenders appeared to commit less crime, followed probation more closely, and had positive feelings about what the police detectives were trying to do. Improvement of the offenders’ relationships with their families was an unanticipated finding indicating a diffusion of benefits of the strategy. Practical implications The results suggest that when procedural justice principles are used in an offender-focused police intervention, positive impact can be achieved without negative consequences. Originality/value This is a rare example of an in-depth evaluation of the perceptions of offenders and family members contacted through a hot spots policing offender-focused strategy.

scholarly journals A paradigm shift in policing: Crime reduction through problem oriented policing

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 2032
Author(s):  
Murat Ozkan
Keyword(s):  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Crime Reduction ◽  
Environmental Criminology ◽  
Prevention Policy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Problem Oriented Policing

The opportunity theories of crime regards opportunity as a root cause and focus attention on the crime rather than the criminal. In the practical crime prevention efforts, this theoretical framework paved the way for innovative policing strategies like problem oriented policing and situational crime prevention. Policy makers and practitioners accept the motivated offender as given and gather the efforts to prevent offenders accessing sufficient means and opportunities for a crime to occur. This paper describes the link between opportunity theories of crime and successful crime reduction efforts stemmed from them. It entails problem oriented policing and situational crime prevention techniques. Crime is not evenly distributed. It concentrates differently on places, offenders and persons. This paper then describes the fundamental discussion of crime distribution on hot places, targets, products, offenders and victims. Major works and findings in the field of environmental criminology is presented by describing hot spots and crime distribution, and crime patterns. The paper finally presents an evaluation of these approaches.

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