Crime Displacement and Situational Prevention: Toward the Development of Some Principles

• NCJ Number: 121777
• Journal: Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 32 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1990) Pages: 41-73
• Author(s): T Gabor
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 33 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This article provides an overview of the issue of crime displacement, including a review of the evidence pertaining to displacement and the debate between situational-prevention advocates and critics.

Abstract

Crime displacement involves a change in offender behavior designed to circumvent specific preventive measures or more general conditions unfavorable to the offender's usual mode of committing crimes. Evidence pertaining to displacement is ambiguous. Evidence suggests a partial displacement of thwarted criminal behavior. Displacement behavior suggests a compulsion to commit crime by persistent attempts to achieve criminal goals in the face of all obstacles. The absence of displacement, on the other hand, suggests that obstructions to criminal behavior can stop the behavior. Critics of situational crime prevention view offenders as sufficiently adaptable to substitute some other criminal behavior for that thwarted by prevention measures. Advocates of situational prevention regard offenders as being sufficiently adaptable to adopt noncriminal behavior to meet their needs when criminal behavior becomes too risky or difficult. 66 references.