Emergence of Crime Places in Crime Prevention (From Punishment, Places and Perpetrators: Developments in Criminology and Criminal Justice Research, P 155-168, 2004, Gerben Bruinsma, Henk Elffers, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-206450)

• NCJ Number: 206459
• Author(s): David Weisburd
• Date Published: 2004
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter addresses a series of questions about the development of place-based crime prevention, as well as the development of place-based crime prevention in the context of policing and the connection between crime prevention research and theory and the emergence of place-based practices in American policing.

Abstract

Questions addressed in this chapter are as follows: Why did criminologists and policymakers ignore the importance of place of crime for so long? Why has place-based crime prevention recently emerged as a central concern of crime prevention studies? Does research evidence support the widespread adoption of place-based prevention in policing? Is there a strong connection between crime prevention research and theory and the emergence of place-based practices in American policing? Until relatively recently, crime places had generally been ignored by criminologists because it was assumed that the crime opportunities related to place were spread widely throughout urban areas and that highly motivated offenders would simply adjust the focus of their criminal activities to places not being targeted. Aided by innovations in computerized geographic information systems (GIS) in the late 1980's and early 1990's, scholars examined the distribution of crime across places. Scholars quickly found that there was a significant concentration of crime events at crime "hot spots," generally defined as addresses, clusters of addresses, or street segments. This led a number of scholars to call for a greater concern with crime places, both in crime prevention planning and in basic crime prevention research. Subsequent research on policing of "hot spots" has found it to be among the most effective police tactics for countering street crime. There is evidence that these research findings have influenced an increase in the adoption of place-based crime prevention. It remains to be determined, however, which types of place-based strategies work best in specific contexts. Research should also address the wider social impacts of place-based policing on the targeted geographic areas and on the wider communities in which they are located. 4 figures and 50 references