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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:55 am
Time: 1:55 am
Results for crime hot spots
9 results foundAuthor: Weisburd, David Title: Understanding Developmental Crime Trajectories at Places: Social Disorganization and Opportunity Perspectives at Micro Units of Geography Summary: Individuals and communities have traditionally been the focus of criminological research, but recently criminologists have begun to explore the importance of “micro” places (e.g. addresses, street segments, and clusters of street segments) in understanding and controlling crime. Recent research provides strong evidence that crime is strongly clustered at hot spots and that there are important developmental trends of crime at place, but little is known about the geographic distribution of these patterns or the specific correlates of crime at this micro level of geography. We report here on a large empirical study that sought to address these gaps in our knowledge of the “criminology of place.” Linking 16 years of official crime data on street segments (a street block between two intersections) in Seattle, Washington to a series of data sets examining social and physical characteristics of micro places over time, we examine not only the geography of developmental patterns of crime at place but also the specific factors that are related to different trajectories of crime. We use two key criminological perspectives, social disorganization theories and opportunity theories, to inform our identification of risk factors in our study and then contrast the impacts of these perspectives in the context of multivariate statistical models. Our first major research question concerns whether social disorganization and opportunity measures vary across micro units of geography, and whether they are clustered, like crime, into “hot spots.” Study variables reflecting social disorganization include property value, housing assistance, race, voting behavior, unsupervised teens, physical disorder, and urbanization. Measures representing opportunity theories include the location of public facilities, street lighting, public transportation, street networks, land use, and business sales. We find strong clustering of such traits into social disorganization and opportunity “hot spots,” as well as significant spatial heterogeneity. We use group-based trajectory modeling to identify eight broad developmental patterns across street segments in Seattle. Our findings in this regard follow an earlier NIJ study that identified distinct developmental trends (e.g. high increasing and high decreasing patterns) while noting the overall stability of crime trends for the majority of street segments in Seattle. We go beyond the prior study by carefully examining the geography of the developmental crime patterns observed. We find evidence of strong heterogeneity of trajectory patterns at street segments with, for example, the presence of chronic trajectory street segments throughout the city. There is also strong street to street variability in crime patterns, though there is some clustering of trajectory patterns in specific areas. Our findings suggest that area trends influence micro level trends (suggesting the relevance of community level theories of crime). Nonetheless, they also show that the bulk of variability at the micro place level is not explained by trends at larger geographic levels. In identifying risk factors related to developmental trajectories, we find confirmation of both social disorganization and opportunity theories. Overall, street segments evidencing higher social disorganization are also found to have higher levels of crime. For many social disorganization measures increasing trends of social disorganization over time were associated with increasing trajectory patterns of crime. Similarly, in the case of opportunity measures related to motivated offenders, suitable crime targets, and their accessibility, we find that greater opportunities for crime are found at street segments in higher rate trajectory patterns. Finally, we use multinomial logistic regression to simultaneously examine opportunity and social disorganization factors and their influence on trajectory patterns. The most important finding here is that both perspectives have considerable salience in understanding crime at place, and together they allow us to develop a very strong level of prediction of crime. Our work suggests it is time to consider an approach to the crime problem that begins not with the people who commit crime but with the micro places where crimes are committed. This is not the geographic units of communities or police beats that have generally been the focus of crime prevention, but it is a unit of analysis that is key to understanding crime and its development. Details: Final report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2009. 379p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 5, 2011 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/236057.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/236057.pdf Shelf Number: 122991 Keywords: Crime AnalysisCrime Hot SpotsCrime LocationsCrime MappingGeographic StudiesHigh Crime Areas |
Author: Weisburd, David L. Title: Hot Spots of Juvenile Crime: Findings From Seattle Summary: This bulletin summarizes the results of a study that reviewed the distribution of juvenile crime in Seattle. The researchers geographically mapped the crime incidents in which a juvenile was arrested to identify the rates and hot spots of juvenile crime in the city. Key findings include the following: • Fifty percent of all juvenile crime incidents occurred at less than 1 percent of street segments—an area that includes the addresses on both sides of a street between two intersections. All juvenile crime incidents occurred at less than 5 percent of street segments. • Juvenile crime was concentrated in public and commercial areas where youth gather—schools, youth centers, shops, malls, and restaurants—rather than residential areas.• Crime rates often vary from one street segment to the next, suggesting that police efforts targeting these hot spots can reduce crime. • Many juvenile crime hot spots coincide with areas where youth congregate, which indicates that closer supervision of these public places, in the form of place managers or patrols, may help lower juvenile crime rates in those areas. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2011. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: Juvenile Justice Bulletin: Accessed October 18, 2011 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/231575.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/231575.pdf Shelf Number: 123048 Keywords: Crime AnalysisCrime Hot SpotsGeographic StudiesHigh Crime AreasJuvenile CrimeJuvenile Offenders (Seattle) |
Author: Charron, Mathieu Title: Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime in Toronto: Additional Analysis on Youth Crime Summary: This study, funded by the National Crime Prevention Centre of Public Safety Canada, explores the spatial distribution of police-reported youth crime in Toronto. It examines how youth crime is geographically distributed in Toronto and endeavours to shed light on the relationship between police-reported youth crime and the neighbourhood characteristics that are most strongly associated with it. This report represents the second phase of the spatial analysis of police-reported crime data for Toronto and builds on the research paper, Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Police-reported Crime in Toronto (Charron 2009). Other cities, including Edmonton, Halifax, Montréal, Regina, Saskatoon, Thunder Bay and Winnipeg have also been analysed as part of this series on the spatial analysis of police-reported crime data. The spatial analysis of crime data provides a visual representation of areas of concentrated crime. It also helps identify neighbourhood characteristics that are related to crime levels (See Text box 1). It can be an important tool in the development and implementation of crime reduction strategies. (See Methodology section at the end of the report for more detailed information on the methodologies used in this study). Data for this study cover the city of Toronto, an area patrolled by the Toronto Police Service. Toronto is located at the heart of a vast metropolitan system bordering the western end of Lake Ontario (from Oshawa to St. Catharines–Niagara), that includes 9 of the country’s 33 census metropolitan areas and over 8,000,000 inhabitants (nearly one quarter of Canada’s population). The city of Toronto is the capital city of Ontario and had a population of over 2,500,000 in 2006, the reference year for this study; about 175,000 were aged 12 to 17 years. Previous studies undertaken by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics have similarly focused on the relationship between crime and neighbourhood characteristics (Charron 2009; Savoie 2008). These studies have shown that crime is not distributed evenly in a municipality, but tends to be concentrated in certain neighbourhoods or ’hot spots’. Additionally, other studies have focused specifically on youth crime. For example, Perreault et al. (2008) found that neighbourhood characteristics accounted for only a small proportion of youth crime hot spots in Montréal. In Toronto, Fitzgerald (2009) found that the delinquency of young students was not associated with the characteristics of the neighbourhoods surrounding their schools. Details: Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2011. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Crime and Justice Research Paper Series; Accessed January 13, 2012 at: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2011/statcan/85-561-M/85-561-m2011022-eng.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Canada URL: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2011/statcan/85-561-M/85-561-m2011022-eng.pdf Shelf Number: 123601 Keywords: Crime Hot SpotsJuvenile DelinquencyJuvenile OffendersNeithbourhoods and Crime (Toronto, Canada)Spatial AnalysisYouth Crime |
Author: Braga, Anthony Title: Hot spots policing effects on crime Summary: In recent years, crime scholars and practitioners have pointed to the potential benefits of focusing crime prevention efforts on crime places. A number of studies suggest that there is significant clustering of crime in small places, or “hot spots,” that generate half of all criminal events. A number of researchers have argued that many crime problems can be reduced more efficiently if police officers focused their attention to these deviant places. The appeal of focusing limited resources on a small number of high-activity crime places is straightforward. If we can prevent crime at these hot spots, then we might be able to reduce total crime. To assess the effects of focused police crime prevention interventions at crime hot spots. The review also examined whether focused police actions at specific locations result in crime displacement (i.e., crime moving around the corner) or diffusion (i.e., crime reduction in surrounding areas) of crime control benefits. Details: Oslo: The Campbell Collaboration, 2012. 97p. Source: Campbell Systematic Reviews 2012:8: Internet Resource: Accessed September 4, 2012 at http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/lib/download/2097/ Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/lib/download/2097/ Shelf Number: 126251 Keywords: Crime and PlaceCrime Hot SpotsCrime PatternsCrime PreventionHot SpotsPolicing |
Author: Alderden, Megan A. Title: Gang Hot Spots Policing in Chicago: An Evaluation of the Deployment Operations Center Process Summary: From 2000 to 2007, Chicago experienced a significant decline in violent crime (murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault/battery), particularly gun-related public violence. In public discourse, this decline was attributed to the Chicago Police Department (CPO) and, in particular, to a process spearheaded by the Deployment Operations Center (DOC). The primary mission of the DOC was to analyze crime and intelligence data, identifying areas of the city believed to have a high probability for violent crime (i.e., violent crime "hot spots"). Areas identified by DOC analysts, termed Level II deployment areas, were used to guide deployment decisions for specialized units, whose responsibility was to enter designated hot spots and suppress gang, drug, and gun crime. The primary purpose of this study, funded by the National Institute of Justice, was to evaluate whether the aforementioned crime reductions could be attributed to the DOC process. To accomplish this, researchers used both qualitative and quantitative research methods, collecting data on various elements of the DOC logic model - analysis of crime and intelligence data, identification of hot spots, communication of designated hot spots to CPO personnel, redeployment of officers to hot spots, and engagement in suppression activities. CPO administrators believed that, through this process, gang, drug, and gun-related crime would be reduced. Details: Final Report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2011. 117p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 25, 2012 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/239207.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/239207.pdf Shelf Number: 126452 Keywords: Crime Hot SpotsGangs (Chicago)Gun ViolenceHomicidesPolicingViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Weisburd, David Title: The Police Foundation Displacement and Diffusion Study Summary: Recent studies point to the potential theoretical and practical benefits of focusing police resources on crime hot spots. However, many scholars have noted that such approaches risk displacing crime or disorder to other places where programs are not in place. Although much attention has been paid to the idea of displacement, methodological problems associated with measuring it have often been overlooked. We try to fill these gaps in measurement and understanding of displacement and the related phenomenon of diffusion of crime control benefits. Our main focus is on immediate spatial displacement or diffusion of crime to areas near the targeted sites of an intervention. Do focused crime prevention efforts at places simply result in a movement of offenders to areas nearby targeted sites—do they simply move crime around the corner? Or, conversely, will a crime prevention effort focusing on specific places lead to improvement in areas nearby—what has come to be termed a diffusion of crime control benefits? Our data are drawn from a controlled study of displacement and diffusion in Jersey City, New Jersey. Our findings indicate that, at least for crime markets involving drugs and prostitution, crime does not simply move around the corner. Indeed, this study supports the position that the most likely outcome of such focused crime prevention efforts is a diffusion of crime control benefits to nearby areas. Details: Washington, DC: Police Foundation, 2010. 14p. Source: Police Foundation Report: Internet Resource: Accessed September 30, 2012 at http://www.policefoundation.org/pdf/DisplacementDiffusionPFReport.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.policefoundation.org/pdf/DisplacementDiffusionPFReport.pdf Shelf Number: 126519 Keywords: Crime DisplacementCrime Hot SpotsHot SpotsPolice Behavior |
Author: Weisburd, David Title: The Dallas AVL Experiment: Evaluating the Use of Automated Vehicle Locator Technologies in Policing Summary: Law enforcement agencies lack specific information describing where police officers patrol when not responding to calls for service. Instead they have snapshots of events that are handled by police such as the locations of crime reports, arrests, traffic citations, and pedestrian stops. While computerized crime mapping has enabled "smart policing" and police have become more scientific in the ways in which they respond to crime (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2010; Robinson, 2011), police agencies still have little ability to assess the effectiveness of their deployment strategies in relationship to their goals. Our study sought to examine these two key gaps in the advancement of recent police innovations. If the police have knowledge about where patrol resources are concentrated in a police agency, can police Commanders more successfully manage broad patrol resources? Within the context of a Compstat model, can they ensure that crime hot spots gain increased levels of patrol? Finally, if such knowledge were available to the police will that help them to prevent crime? We think that the answers to these questions are key to the advancement of policing. Our study is the first we know of to test these questions directly. Since the early 1990s, hot spots policing has emerged as an important policing strategy. Sherman and Weisburd (1995) coined the term and argued that the police should not water down the dosage of police patrol across entire beats, but should focus it upon the specific places where crime was concentrated. While police scholars now agree widely that preventive patrol over larger areas is not effective (Weisburd & Eck, 2004; Bayley, 1994), the introduction of automated vehicle locator (AVL) technology allowed us to see whether provision of detailed information on actual patrol dosage to police managers would allow for more effective allocation of patrol in beats and following this significant reductions in crime. We were also able to examine these questions for crime hot spots identified during Compstat meetings. We used a blocked randomized experimental design to examine these questions. First, we used trajectory analysis to identify four groups of beats with similar crime trajectories. Each of the beats within a trajectory group was randomly allocated to treatment or control. Commanders received information on the measured deployment levels (the amount of hours of vehicle presence as measured by an Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL) system) received by the treatment beats but not the control beats. In addition, they received AVL measured deployment information about Compstat hot spots (those identified for specific deployment strategies) in the treatment areas but not in the control areas. At the beat level, access to AVL measured deployment information led Commanders to request significantly higher amounts of patrol presence but did not result in an increase in actual patrol levels. At the hot spot level, it is important to note that our unit of analysis is no longer the same as our randomization unit. Thus, we interpret these results with caution. At the hot spot level, AVL does not lead Commanders to request higher levels of patrol, but it did lead to higher actual levels of patrol at those places. Also, in contrast to the beat level findings, we find treatment hot spots have about a 20 percent relative "decline" in crime. The Dallas (Texas) AVL Experiment provides important information to improve our understanding of how AVL technologies can be used to maximize patrol in police agencies. Our data suggest that, at least in cities like Dallas with large geographies, AVL information will not aid patrol allocations in large geographic areas because patrol coverage in beats is largely a function of cross district dispatch rather than Commander-specified deployment. However, it is effective in achieving higher levels of patrol in hot spots and significant reductions in crime. Additional studies are needed in other cities and focusing on hot spot areas to better understand the potential value in using AVL for deployment. Details: Washington, DC: Police Foundation, 2015. 127p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 29, 2015 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/248958.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/248958.pdf Shelf Number: 136256 Keywords: Automated Vehicle LocatorCrime Hot SpotsPolice DeploymentPolice PatrolPolice Technology |
Author: Guarin, Arlen Title: Police Stations for Instant Reaction: A Maximal Homicide Coverage Location Problem Summary: The probability of facing prison is one of the major factors that deters individuals from committing crimes. The degree of impact of this variable is affected both by the severity of penalties, and by the probability of being caught, which largely depends on the level of police coverage in the jurisdiction. Thus, we consider a maximal covering location problem where the objective is to provide maximal coverage of weighted potential homicide spots through the construction of police stations for instant reaction, subject to a budget constraint. Our empirical application is performed in Medellın (Colombia), one of the cities with the highest homicide rate in the World. Specifically , we call the Google Maps Application Programming Interface (API) to estimate average travelling time between police stations and criminal spots, then we use a Simulated Annealing algorithm to find the best feasible allocation of stations subject to a set of suggested budgets. We confirm that the maximum coverage follows a diminishing marginal process over the budget. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Banco de la Republica, 2015. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 13, 2016 at: https://repository.eafit.edu.co/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10784/8152/ArlenYahir_GuarinGaleano_2015.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Year: 2015 Country: Colombia URL: https://repository.eafit.edu.co/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10784/8152/ArlenYahir_GuarinGaleano_2015.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 140269 Keywords: Crime Hot SpotsHomicidesPolice ResponsePolice Stations |
Author: Jackson, Mark Title: Murder Concentration and Distribution Patterns in London: An Exploratory Analysis of Ten Years of Data Summary: The phenomenon of how the volume of crime varies from place to place has received significant focus over the last four decades. Previous research has identified that crime is not randomly distributed across places but clusters in areas sometimes called hot spots. This research analyses 10 years of homicide patterns across London from Local Authority Borough level down to small local neighbourhood level. Through the use of geo-coding technology to map homicide locations and victims' and offenders' home addresses, frequency analysis is conducted down to a Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) level. This provides a structure to segment London into 4761 neighbourhoods. The findings of this research are that 74% of London's LSOAs do not have a single homicide over the 10 year period. Additionally it identifies that homicide in London is concentrated in a small number of local neighbourhood locations rather than randomly spread across the whole city. These concentrations account for only 6% of neighbourhoods but contribute 42% of the homicide locations, over the 10 year period. This methodology is also applied to specific methods of homicide, e.g. domestic violence, where similar patterns of concentrations of homicides are identified. Geographical analysis of victims and perpetrators of homicide identifies that 50% of perpetrators reside within one mile of the homicide offence location. Additionally 52% of perpetrators' home addresses are clustered within 9% of LSOAs. This research will contribute to the criminological evidence-base, having both operational implications, such as the focus of policing patrol strategy, and policy implications for a significant number of agencies in how they assess the prioritisation of resources, particularly within the current difficult fiscal climate. Details: Cambridge, UK: Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, 2010. 100p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed October 17, 2016 at: http://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/alumni/theses/Jackson,%20M.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/alumni/theses/Jackson,%20M.pdf Shelf Number: 145099 Keywords: Crime AnalysisCrime and PlaceCrime Hot SpotsCrime PatternsHomicidesHot Spots |