The crime prevention effect of CCTV in public places: a propensity score analysis

Criminology & Public Policy

Wheeler²,

Connealy

et al. 2020

Self Cite

Research Summary: The current study analyzes the crime reduction effect of a police substation operating within a business improvement district in Newark, New Jersey.Synthetic control methods were used to create a control group that was statistically equivalent to the cumulative street units in the target area. Significant reductions of burglary and motor vehicle theft were observed in the target area as compared with a synthetic control area over the postintervention period. Robbery and theft from auto, conversely, suffered from spatial displacement. Of the six police actions included in the process evaluation, qualityof-life summonses and directed patrols increased in the postintervention period, whereas parking summonses significantly decreased. Policy Implications:The results of this study suggest that the effect of substations on crime likely depends on certain contextual factors. Newark's substation was not a standalone facility, but the headquarters of a police unit given jurisdiction over the target area. Therefore, the opening of the substation represented an increase in visible police presence. The effect of the substation was heightened when accompanied by increases in proactive policing activities. Agencies wishing to effectively address robbery and theft 13 See https://landscan.ornl.gov/frequently-asked-questions. ORCID Eric L. Piza

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crime control effects of a police substation within a business improvement district: A quasi‐experimental synthetic control evaluation

Criminology & Public Policy

Wheeler²,

Connealy

et al. 2020

Self Cite

“…Scott et al (2016) measured the purchase and injection of heroin in public settings through a survey of intravenous drug users. 2 Piza (2018a) was originally published as an early view article in 2016, thus, falling within our search period.…”

Section: Conclusion and Directions For Policy And Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

CCTV surveillance for crime prevention

Criminology & Public Policy

Welsh

Farrington

et al. 2019

Self Cite

183

Research Summary We report on the findings of an updated systematic review and meta‐analysis of the effects of closed‐circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras on crime. The findings show that CCTV is associated with a significant and modest decrease in crime. The largest and most consistent effects of CCTV were observed in car parks. The results of the analysis also demonstrated evidence of significant crime reductions within other settings, particularly residential areas. CCTV schemes incorporating active monitoring generated larger effect sizes than did passive systems. Schemes deploying multiple interventions alongside CCTV generated larger effect sizes than did schemes deploying single or no other interventions alongside CCTV. Policy Implications The results of this systematic review—based on 40 years of evaluation research—lend support for the continued use of CCTV to prevent crime as well as reveal a greater understanding of some of the key mechanisms of effective use. Of particular salience is the continued need for CCTV to be narrowly targeted on vehicle crimes and property crime and not be deployed as a “stand‐alone” crime prevention measure. As CCTV surveillance continues to expand its reach in both public and private space and evolve with new technology, policy will benefit from high‐quality evaluations of outcomes and implementation.

“…The experimental strategy generated statistically significant, and sizable, reductions of violent crime and social disorder. This is noteworthy in light of CCTV's limited effect on most street-level crime types, as observed in Newark (Caplan et al, 2011;Piza, 2014;Piza et al, 2014a) as well as in the general CCTV literature (Welsh & Farrington, 2009). The findings directly support the hypothesis that the integration of CCTV with proactive police activity generated by human operators produces a crime control benefit greater than what has previously been achieved via "stand-alone" camera deployment (Piza et al, 2014d).…”

Section: The Importance Of Human Factors In Technology Evaluations: Amentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Piza (2014) found that the full CCTV system generated modest auto theft reductions in only one of four police precincts while less than half (54 of 146) of the individual camera sites showed any evidence of an auto theft reduction (Piza et al, 2014a). None of the other 5 crime types included in the study experienced any significant reductions (Piza, 2014).…”

Section: The Importance Of Human Factors In Technology Evaluations: Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Human Factors Engineering and Information Processing Approaches to Facilitate Evaluations in Criminal Justice Technology Research

Salvemini¹,

Carter

et al. 2015

Eval Rev

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Background: Evaluations are routinely conducted by government agencies and research organizations to assess the effectiveness and operational impact of technology used in the criminal justice system. An integral part of this effort involves researchers adopting interdisciplinary approaches. Technology evaluations are faced with a number of important challenges and opportunities including (1) the need to facilitate effective communication between social science researchers, technology specialists, and practitioners, (2) the need to better understand the procedural and contextual aspects of a given technology, and (3) the need to generate findings that can be more readily used for decision making and developing policy recommendations. Objectives: Process and outcome evaluations of technology can be enhanced by integrating concepts from the disciplines of human factors engineering and information processing. This systemic approach, which focuses on the interaction between humans, technology and information, enables researchers to better assess how a given technology is used in practice and at a procedural level. Subjects: Examples are drawn from complex technologies currently deployed within the criminal justice system where traditional evaluations have primarily focused on outcome metrics. Although this evidence-based approach has significant value, it is vulnerable to fully account for human and structural complexities that compose technology operations. Conclusions: Guiding principles for technology evaluations are described for identifying and defining key study metrics, facilitating communication within an interdisciplinary research team, as well as for understanding the interaction between users, technology, and information. The approach posited here can also enable researchers to better assess factors that may facilitate or degrade the operational impact of the technology and answer fundamental questions concerning whether the technology works as intended, at what level, and cost.