NCJ Number
247171
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 31 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2014 Pages: 633-663
Date Published
August 2014
Length
31 pages
Annotation
In recent years, crime scholars and practitioners have pointed to the potential benefits of focusing police crime prevention efforts on crime places. Research suggests that there is significant clustering of crime in small places or "hot spots."
Abstract
A number of researchers have argued that crime problems can be reduced more efficiently if police officers focused their attention to these deviant places. In this article, the authors update and improve upon a previously completed Campbell Collaboration systematic review of the effects of hot spots policing and crime. Meta-analyses were used to determine the size, direction, and statistical significance of the overall impact of hot spots policing strategies on crime. The results of the authors research suggests that hot spots policing generated small but noteworthy crime reductions, and these crime control benefits diffuse into areas immediately surrounding targeted crime hot spots. The authors analyzes found that problem-oriented policing interventions generated larger mean effect sizes when compared to interventions that simply increase levels of traditional police actions in crime hot spots. The authors also find that only a small number of studies examine the impacts of hot spots policing on police-community relations. The extant research on this topic, however, suggests that community members have positive reactions to these focused policing actions. Abstract published by arrangement with Taylor and Francis.