NCJ Number
137095
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Dated: (1992) Pages: 135- 145
Date Published
1992
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Storefront stings, in which undercover police officers post as fences to infiltrate local stolen property distributions systems, have been a popular tactic for 15 years. This study examines the implications for the host community of site locations for these sting operations. If the clientele is clustered about the sting site, there are issues of selected enforcement, but if the clientele comes from outside the community, the question is whether the police have inadvertently attracted new criminals to the neighborhood.
Abstract
The data used in this study were collected from 63 persons arrested as a result of a storefront sting operation conducted by the Birmingham police department in 1985 and 1986. The findings showed that, although the geographic center of the sting clientele shifted, the locational variance and the distance from the site location to the geographic center of the client distribution remained the same as the project progressed. This suggests that the clientele of the Birmingham operation was localized and did not diffuse across the city. One means of preventing the emergence of equity issues during sting operations is to make explicit and defend the criteria used to make site selection decisions. Sites could be selected based on the concentration of a specific population of criminals or the distribution of a specific crime. Another means of addressing the question of selective enforcement is to pick storefront locations randomly. 3 tables, 2 figures, 7 notes, and 31 references (Author abstract modified)