Hot Spots Policing

Abstract

Hot spots policing involves police focusing more resources on small units of geography (e.g., addresses, street blocks, small groups of street blocks) with high levels of criminal activity. The tactics police use at these crime hot spots can vary, but often involve some combination of increasing patrol presence and problem solving. There are a large number of rigorous evaluations of hot spots policing suggesting that the approach can be effective in reducing crime and disorder without simply displacing crime to areas nearby.

Internal and External Crime Hot Spots: From Neural to Micro-Geographical Networks

“…Social disorder encompasses elements such as weak informal social controls, frayed social ties and the community’s inability to regulate its residents. These issues manifest in various structural characteristics, including poverty, low social cohesion, limited collective efficacy and frequent resident turnover (Telep and Hibdon 2019; Weisburd, Groff, and Yang 2014).…”

“…Physical disorder involves the presence of abandoned cars and buildings, secluded areas around deteriorating properties used for storing illegal substances (commonly referred to as “stash” locations) and excessive noise. Streets with more physical disorder, higher economic disadvantage and lower levels of collective efficacy are more likely to be crime hot spots (Telep and Hibdon 2019).…”

“…This process, constrained by limited emotional and cognitive abilities (e.g. sensitivity to rewards, poor inhibitory control), often leads to limited rather than normative rationality (Telep and Hibdon 2019).…”

Restoring Paradise in the Caribbean: Combatting Violence with Numbers

“…Beyond neighbourhoods, there has also been a wave of studies examining police data on "micro-places" (blocks or street segments) where crime is concentrated. As a result of technological advances (including Global Positioning System-coded addresses), the literature on detection and analysis of crime hot spots has steadily grown (Braga, Papachristos, and Hureau 2014;Sherman and Weisburd 1995;Weisburd and Braga 2003). Weisburd (2015) reviews all the findings to date that support the existence of a "law of crime concentration at place."…”