By: Louise E. Porter and Adam Graycar

Some places have no crime and some have a lot, and thus we study hotspots. Corruption is structured differently to crime, but hotspots still are notable. The difference is that hotspots are not places but clusters of activity. This paper analyses corruption cases from New York City to explore a way of identifying such clusters. Seventy-two cases were coded according to features that represent the elements of the crime triangle: offender and motivation, target and opportunity, and place and ability. Multidimensional scaling revealed three groups of cases, exhibiting different patterns of corrupt activity. Group one involved politicians involved in high value financial corruption. Group two primarily involved supervisors who created opportunities involving procurement and contracts. Group three involved inspectors, particularly in the infrastructure sector, who were involved with low value bribes to violate regulations. Each is discussed in relation to situational crime prevention principles to develop possible strategies for prevention.

Security Journal, Vol. 29 (3) 423-441.

By: Peter Guillaume, Aiden Sidebottom and Nick Tilley

This paper describes the origins, development and experience of an extended collaborative relationship between the UCL Jill Dando Institute (JDI) of Security and Crime Science at University College London and Warwickshire Police and Warwickshire County Council. This is discussed in the context of a practitioner-led problem-oriented policing project to reduce bag theft from British supermarkets. The case study highlights many of the ways in which universities and police and partnership agencies can work fruitfully with one another. Our hope is that the case study might yield insights into potential determinants of effective academic–practitioner collaborations.

Police Practice and Research; Vol. 13, No. 4, August 2012, 389–401

By: Ferhat Tura, James Hunter, Rebecca Thompson, and Andromachi Tseloni

Previous research consistently demonstrates that problem-oriented policing (POP) can address a range of policing issues; hence its continued appeal and relevance to current practice. However, there are well-documented challenges in terms of its implementation and sustenance within police forces. Studies of policing styles have yet to thoroughly assess the long-term commitment to POP within police forces in England and Wales. To this end, we first revisit and revise previous research findings on policing styles. Then, we advance a methodology for retrospectively measuring police force POP commitment using two novel indicators—problem-oriented projects submitted to the Tilley Award and those applied as part of the Crime Reduction Programme. We then rank police forces in terms of POP commitment. The empirical evidence and methodology presented here can be used to further examine contemporary adherence to POP as well as the role of policing styles in long-term crime falls or other policing outcomes in England and Wales.

Policing, Volume 00, Number 0, pp. 1–14

By: John Eck

Advancement of problem-oriented policing has been stymied by over-attention to police organizations and under-attention to police problems. This paper develops a research agenda for understanding police problems by addressing four fundamental questions: What are problems? What causes problems? How can we find effective solutions to problems? And how can we learn from problem solving? For each question a possible direction for theory, research, or evaluation is suggested. The variety of police problems, their non-linear feedback systems, the diversity of responses that can be applied to problems, and the difficulty of learning from problem-solving experiences highlight the complexity of police problems. The paper closes with a list of research questions designed to improve the science and practice of problem analysis and solution.

Crime Prevention Studies, vol. 15 (2003), pp. 79-113.

By: Julienne Weegels

Nicaragua has implemented a community-oriented policing model in addition to providing a prison system that is based on the premise of prisoners’ re-education. Though these are part of the criminal justice system, they are also presented as social policies with the objective of social (re) insertion of marginalised urban youth particularly. On the premise that detention is temporary and beneicial, these policies claim to prevent (youth) criminality and to reform its perpetrators. Yet they mostly push these youths into a spiral of continued state interventions. Through an analysis of youth-oriented public policy and an examination of the expansion of criminal justice services, complemented by ethnographic research material collected with young (former) prisoners, this article demonstrates how and why social policy for youth is being carried out by the criminal justice system. This development is underpinned by the securitisation of social policy and a political culture of social conservatism that renders marginalised youth unworthy of social protection.

OXFORD DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, 2017; https://doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2017.1391192

By: Michael S. Scott

Problem-oriented policing initiatives are one important form of crime prevention, and they offer opportunities for learning about implementation success and failure. Problem-oriented policing initiatives can succeed or fail for a variety of reasons, among them: inaccurate identification of the probk?n, inaccurate analysis of the problem, inadequate implementation, or application of an incorrect theory. This paper draws upon both the research literature and reports on problem-oriented policing initiatives to identify those factors that best explain why action plans do or do not get implemented. It identifies and provides examples of five clusters of factors that help explain implementation success or failure: (I) characteristics, skills, and actions of project managers; (2) resources (3) support and cooperation external to the police agency; (4) evidence; and (5) complexity of implementation.

Crime Prevention Studies, volume 20 (2006), pp. 9-35

By: John E. Eck

Increasing attention is being paid to the systematic review and synthesis of evaluations of large-scale, generic, crime prevention programs. The utility of these syntheses rests on the assumption that the programs are designed to work across a wide variety of contexts. But many police problem-solving efforts and situational prevention interventions are small-scale efforts specifically tailored to individual contexts. Do evaluation designs and methods applicable to generic programs apply to problem specific programs? Answering this questions requires examining the differences between propensity-based and opportunity-blocking interventions; between internal and external validity; and between the needs of practitioner evaluators and academic researchers. This paper demonstrates that in some common circumstances, weak evaluation designs may have greater utility and produce more generalizable results than very strong evaluation designs. This conclusion has important implications for evaluations of place-based opportunity blocking, and for how we draw general conclusions about what works when, and what seldom ever works.

Crime Prevention Studies, volume 14, pp 93-117

By: Thalia Anthony

This paper addresses the trends in sentencing by higher courts of Indigenous protesters against ‘white’ racist violence. It contrasts earlier sentencing decisions affecting resisters on the Yarrabah Reserve in 1981 and towards the 1987 death in custody of Lloyd Boney at Brewarrina (NSW), with later sentencing of protesters after Mulrunji’s death in custody on Palm Island in 2004. It argues that Indigenous resisters are increasingly characterised by sentencing judges as out-of-control rather than capable of legitimate political engagement. This dovetails a denunciation of the Indigenous community in media moral panics that demands more punitive restraint.

Criminology and Law Enforcement; 12/2009

By Timothy F. Leslie, Cara L. Frankenfeld & Angela J. Hattery 

Background: Police shootings are unevenly spatially distributed, with substantive spikes throughout the USA. While minorities are disproportionately the victims of the police force, social or structural factors associated with this distribution are not well understood. The objective of this work was to evaluate police shootings in relation to victim race or ethnicity and residential segregation and racial diversity.

Methods: Validated crowdsourced data from the Washington Post’s Fatal Force (2015–2020) were linked with census tract-level data from the American Community Survey. Residential minority dissimilarity, interaction, and a racial and ethnic diversity metric were calculated in order to assess the potentially variant importance of evenness in distribution, exposure likelihood, and general representation. Logistic and multinomial regression was used to model associations between segregation and diversity, adjusted for other ecological characteristics. Analyses were stratified by victim race or ethnicity (Black, Asian, or Hispanic).

Results: Across all races combined, the odds of a police shooting in a particular census tract were associated with non-Hispanic Black dissimilarity (OR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.97, 0.99) and racial and ethnic diversity (1.046, 95% CI 1.044, 1.060). Areas with higher racial diversity had a higher likelihood of having a police shooting event with Black victims (OR = 1.092, 95% CI 1.064, 1.120) or Asian victims (OR = 1.188, 1.051, 1.343) than less diverse areas. Higher non-Hispanic Black interaction was associated with a lower likelihood of having a police shooting event with Black victims (OR = 0.914, 95% CI 0.833, 0.946) than lower interaction areas. Higher Hispanic dissimilarity was associated with a lower likelihood of having a police shooting event with a Hispanic victim (OR = 0.398, 95% CI 0.324, 0.489) than in lower dissimilarity areas.

Conclusions: The variant effects of residential segregation are only seen when victims are analyzed separately by race. There appears to be a protective effect for Hispanic populations in Hispanic communities, while the reverse is true of Black individuals. We urge law enforcement responsible for locations with segregated communities to monitor individual interactions that police have with residents as well as the patterns of frequency and context of those interactions.

Injury Epidemiology volume 9, Article number: 8 (2022) 

By Camello, M., Planty, M., Krebs, C. P., & Faris, B

Measuring community perceptions and opinions of law enforcement can help agencies, government officials, and the communities they serve to understand the community’s feelings and perceptions about law enforcement and safety, which may be influenced by both crime and non-crime-related issues. Having this information enables agencies to learn, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, refine their policies and practices, and improve their performance while building trust through increased transparency and responsiveness to public concerns. The objectives of this landscape report are to provide foundational principles on survey methodology, highlight three different approaches that can be used to measure community perceptions (general population surveys, post-contact surveys, and leveraging of data from existing sources), and describe novel modes for carrying out the various approaches.

Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International, 2023. 77p.

By Brett Cowell,  Maria Valdovinos Olson,  Eiryn Renouard Jennifer Calnon Cherkauskas,  Ryan Fisher

Law enforcement culture, particularly the normalization and acceptance of voluntary risk-taking, can result in officers taking unnecessary risks when driving and working on or near a roadway. These dangerous behaviors— including not wearing a seat belt, reflective vest, or body armor, driving at excessive speeds, and driving while fatigued or distracted—are major risk factors for officer-involved motor vehicle collisions and struck-by incidents. Given the significant number of officers who are injured or killed in these types of roadway-related incidents each year, the National Law Enforcement Roadway Safety Program (NLERSP) team sought to examine how law enforcement culture may be contributing to these behaviors and provide law enforcement leaders with guidance on how to shift organizational culture to improve roadway safety. Through a review of the available literature on law enforcement culture and roadway-related incidents and the findings from a focus group comprised of law enforcement executives, supervisors, trainers, and officers, the NLERSP team identified several actionable steps agencies can take to address roadway-related safety risks. In addressing these risks, law enforcement leaders must strive to create a culture of safety within their agency—one that emphasizes and values “safety first” in law enforcement operations. While changing culture in law enforcement is not easy, the highly successful crash prevention program implemented by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, whose case study is featured in this brief, demonstrates that it is possible. As focus group participants explained, establishing a culture of safety for roadway operations can be accomplished by setting expectations through policy and training, communicating these expectations, providing unyielding support, and emphasizing accountability at all levels of the agency  

Arlington, VA:  The National Policing Institute, 2024. 34p.

By Roberto Santos and Rachel Santos    

The three elements of community policing are (1) partnerships, (2) problem-solving, and (3) organizational transformation. These elements depend on one another: To develop meaningful partnerships with the community and conduct collaborative problem-solving, the community must trust the police and see them as legitimate in their authority. Research has established that an effective way of increasing legitimacy and trust is consistent, positive engagement between police and community members. Police departments have developed many community policing programs and events that bring police and community members together to interact in positive ways; some of the longest-established include Police Athletic Leagues (PAL), National Night Out, and Coffee with a Cop. Generally, such programs are carried out by designated community policing units or a small number of specific personnel, or through a publicity campaign or social media. There are fewer established models for implementing community engagement departmentwide. This guide focuses on promoting positive interpersonal interactions between community members and officers at any rank outside of normal law enforcement, management, or administrative duties. These proactive community contacts could be one-time or regular interactions, but they are personalized, often brief, direct, and positive. The significance of a simple type of interpersonal connection cannot be stressed enough: Research shows that community members’ opinions of police are greatly affected by positive contacts.3 The challenge is setting up a framework to make officers—not only patrol officers, but detectives, sergeants, managers, and commanders—more willing to proactively and consistently engage with the community in a way that makes sense for their positions and can easily become part of their normal duties. Such a framework can help an agency more easily systematize department-wide community engagement to build legitimacy and trust, which improves community acceptance of police efforts to partner, problem-solve, and prevent crime. Hearing from the police is important to translating concepts supported by research into realistic ways to operationalize best practices. The discussion in this guide is the outcome of focus groups conducted with officers at every rank from a wide range of departments across the United States. Ninety-seven people participated in 12 focus groups conducted via video conferencing—two each of officers or detectives, sergeants, lieutenants, captains or commanders, executive-level staff, and agency heads. The objective of the focus groups was to understand what would make law enforcement—both individuals and the broader police culture—more amenable to community engagement in daily activities and to identify challenges to community engagement implementation. Analysis of the conversations focused on finding out which activities are easy and realistic for law enforcement officers to implement individually and what organizational support they need to do so. The results, presented here, offer considerations about how to operationalize proactive community engagement with clear expectations, mechanisms for accountability, and alignment with proactive crime reduction and crime prevention. The discussion covers why community engagement is important; a framework, outlined by the major themes from the focus groups, for operationalizing community engagement; and, as an example, an application of the framework to one specific community engagement strategy—community walks. Our hope is that agencies will use this framework to implement any type of engagement strategy that can work for their communities.   

 Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services., 2024. 26p. 

By The National Policing Institute

Large and small law enforcement agencies across the United States use specialized police units to solve community problems that traditional patrol units lack the resources or expertise to address. Throughout the decades, specialized units—most notably specialized enforcement units focused on crime control in certain areas—have at times run afoul of law enforcement’s mission and of the Constitution. These instances of police misconduct can destroy the legitimacy of their own and other agencies and severely undermine community and officer safety. In the wake of Tyre Nichols’s tragic death in 2023 at the hands of officers assigned to a Memphis (Tennessee) Police Department specialized enforcement unit, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) heard from police chiefs across the country who were assessing their use of specialized units. The DOJ committed to providing a guide to assist law enforcement leaders, mayors, and communities in assessing the appropriateness of specialized units and ensuring the effective management and necessary accountability of such units. This guide is intended to benefit all state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) agencies irrespective of their history with specialized units or those units’ size. In early 2023, the DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) and the National Policing Institute (NPI) partnered to hold a series of convenings, roundtable discussions, and interviews with law enforcement and community stakeholders to inform this guide. Law enforcement participants represented many types and sizes of SLTT agencies and included active supervisors of specialized units; other participants included individuals from several civil rights and community advocacy groups, many of whom work in and have a deep understanding of the perspectives of communities impacted by specialized units. The participants’ wide range of experiences, expertise, and perspectives played an indispensable role in forming the considerations represented in this guide. The information presented in this guide was gleaned from many dedicated experts concerned with improving policing and creating safe communities. It is presented as considerations because they are just that: considerations, not edicts. Every law enforcement agency is different, serving unique communities and with unique public safety concerns. Recognizing these disparate needs, each agency should use the considerations in this guide in the manner that works best for it. The COPS Office and NPI strongly believe that using these considerations will strengthen an agency’s ability to police in an effective and just manner. The goal of the guide is to give practical, actionable considerations for agencies and communities to help determine whether to form a specialized unit, and if so, how to ensure appropriate management, oversight, and accountability for any such unit. The guide looks at four critical stages of a specialized unit’s development: (1) formation, (2) personnel selection and supervision, (3) management and accountability, and (4) community engagement. For document organization and ease of reading, the stages are presented as chronological or linear, spanning the life cycle of a specialized unit, but the authors realize that many agencies already have existing specialized units and can tailor the use of this guide to their unique needs. Several key considerations are put forth for each section of the guide.   

Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. 2024. 72p.  

By Julian Go

 In the early 20th century, police departments across America’s cities enhanced their infrastructural power by adopting various tactical, operational, and organizational innovations. Based upon a nested cross-city analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, including negative binomial regression analysis of the determinants of militarization, this study reveals that these innovations constituted an early form of militarization resulting from imperial feedback. Local Police Borrowed Tactics, techniques, and organizational templates from America’s imperial military regime that had been developed to conquer and rule foreign populations. Imperial feedback occurred as a result of imperial imports, many of them veterans of America’s imperial-military apparatus, who constructed analogies between colonial subjects abroad and racialized minorities at home. The study identifies an early form of police militarization, reveals the imperial origins of police militarization, and offers a potentially transportable theory of imperial feedback that stands as one among other possible routes to police militarization.  

   AJS Volume 125 Number 5 (March 2020): 1193–1254  

By Nick Tilley, Graham Farrell, and Ronald V. Clarke

This is a chapter from The Criminal Act: The Role and Influence of Routine Activity Theory edited by Martin A. Andresen and Graham Farrell. This chapter is available open access under a CC BY license. Target suitability is a cornerstone of Marcus Felson's routine activities approach, and critical in determining crime rates. Recent research identifies reduced target suitability, via improved security, as central to the 'crime drop' experienced in many countries. Studies in different countries show car theft fell with far more and better vehicle security. Yet increases in household security were more modest and do not track burglary's decrease as well. In this chapter, the authors explain that apparent anomaly as due more to an improvement in the quality of household security leading to reduced burglary. It is further suggested that improvements to home insulation in the UK that brought double glazing may have, somewhat inadvertently, introduced better frames and locks for doors and windows, that in turn reduced household burglary.; This is a chapter from The Criminal Act: The Role and Influence of Routine Activity Theory edited by Martin A. Andresen and Graham Farrell. 

London: Springer Nature, 2015.

By Stephen Farrall and Emily Gray

This book explores the impact of right-wing political ideology on crime, the criminal justice system, and attitudes towards punishment in Britain. Grounded in a rigorous analysis of repeated cross-sectional surveys such as the British Social Attitudes Survey and the British Crime Survey, as well as individual-level cohort data such as the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Study, it examines changes in long-term crime rates, criminal justice policies, and their integration with social and economic policies in Britain over four decades. It offers a detailed discussion of how radical social and economic changes affected the fear of crime and attitudes to punishment, and how well Thatcherite social and economic values were embedded in contemporary British society. Drawing on a wide literature across criminology, political science, sociology, and social policy, this book demonstrates how a thorough understanding of crime cannot take place without an examination of the wider social policies enacted, the life courses of the individuals affected, and their communities and the political environment in which they live. It is essential reading for criminologists, sociologists, political philosophers, and social theorists alike since it combines thinking from political sciences, life-courses theories, and detailed analyses of the outcomes of social policy change

Abingdon, Oxon, UK: New York: Routledge, 2024.

By: Graham Farrell and Ken Pease

The attempt to reduce

• the number of crime events and/or

• the loss and harm resulting from crime events

is the core work of both the security industry and the police, with their local authority partners. The difference is that the former does its work for its employers (where the security is in-house) or for paying clients. The police act as the National Health Service to the security industry’s BUPA, with many of the same tensions that arise at the points of connection.

This chapter seeks to outline key aspects of criminology that, in the view of the authors, make a significant and continuing contribution to the security industry. Its main aim therefore, is to present an introduction to crime prevention and crime science for a readership working in the security industry. Enough case studies of successful crime reduction efforts have now been published to provide a source of information and possible emulation for anyone in the public or private sector seriously interested in crime and loss reduction.

August 2005 Chapter forthcoming in M. Gill (Ed.) The Handbook of Security. Perpetuity Press.

By: FERHAT TURA

Problem-oriented policing (POP) is one of the various proactive policing strategies that have been developed since the 1970s. It has been claimed that POP has had a considerable effect in reducing crime (Weisburd et al., 2010). However, its role in the crime drop that has been experienced in England and Wales and across the world since the 1990s (Tseloni et al., 2010) is not yet known (Weisburd and Majmundar, 2018). Therefore, this thesis explores the role of POP in the burglary drop at the police force area (PFA) level in England and Wales between 1988 and 2007/08.

The theories that underpin both POP and this study are opportunity-related theories (rational choice and routine activity theories), social disorganisation theory, and the new public management concept. The empirical component of the study is divided into three phases, where each phase employs different methods (e.g. multilevel negative binomial regression) to analyse a rich array of data sources (e.g. the Crime Survey for England and Wales). The results of this thesis can be summarised as follows:

1. A number of police forces in England and Wales were consistently committed to POP over time.

2. There seemed to be a relationship between POP and the fall in burglaries and repeat burglaries in a number of POP-committed PFAs between 1995 and 2007/08.

3. Although POP-committed police forces experienced fewer burglaries in 2003/04, POP did not result in a statistically significant reduction in burglaries between 1995 and 2003/04.

4. Conversely, POP-committed police forces saw a statistically significantly higher number of burglaries in 1997.

5. Police forces with a higher number of police officers per 1000 residents experienced a statistically significant reduction in burglaries in 2003/04.

In light of the above findings, this thesis sheds new light on the crime drop and policing literature. Consequently, the findings inform the theoretical and practical aspects of POP that can be used by police and other crime prevention agencies to reduce burglary victimisation.

Notttingham Trent University; November 2019

By: Paul Michael Cozens, Greg Saville, and David Hillier

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically review the core findings from recently published place-based crime prevention research. The paper aims to critically evaluate the available evidence on the contribution of crime prevention through environmental design as a crime prevention strategy.

Design/methodology/approach – Large-scale evaluations of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) are reviewed with a view to clarifying current knowledge on the evidence of crime prevention through environmental design.

Findings – The review concludes that there is a growing body of research that supports the assertion that crime prevention through environmental design is effective in reducing both crime and fear of crime in the community.

Research limitations/implications – Although the paper may not review all the evaluations of CPTED, it nonetheless provides a detailed compilation and overview of the most significant research in the area, including an extensive and modern bibliography on the subject. Research implications will be the subject of a forthcoming paper.

Practical implications – CPTED is an increasingly fashionable approach and is being implemented on a global scale. Additionally, individual components such as territoriality, surveillance, maintenance, access control, activity support and target-hardening are being widely deployed. However, the evidence currently available is inconclusive and much criticised, which effectively prevents widespread intervention and investment by central government. The paper details the difficulties associated with demonstrating the effectiveness of CPTED.

Originality/value – The paper concludes that although empirical proof has not been definitively demonstrated, there is a large and growing body of research, which supports the assertion that crime prevention through environmental design is a pragmatic and effective crime prevention tool. This review provides an extensive bibliography of contemporary crime prevention through environmental design and a follow-up paper will discuss the future research priorities for it.

Property Management Vol. 23 No. 5, 2005 pp. 328-356

By: John E. Eck & Emily B. Eck

On May 16, 2010, in the Club Ritz nightclub, Jerry Scott shot Dexter Burroughs dead. This was the second killing in the bar since 1998. Five years earlier, four people were shot near the club, one by the police and three in a separate incident. Four years earlier, a fight at the club resulted in a car chase that killed Philiant Johnson and wounded three others. On Valentine’s Day 2010, three people were shot in the club’s parking lot (Baker, 2010; Horst, 2010). After the killing of Burroughs, the club closed for several months but then reopened. Police state that since reopening, “14 arrests for disorderly conduct or drug possession have been made at the club, plus 10 assaults, four domestic violence incidents, a robbery and carjacking” (Whitaker, 2011). The owner of the club stated: “It’s not our fault. Nightclubs do not kill people. People kill people” (Nightclub and Bar, 2010). Just as the owner of the Club Ritz implies they should, current crime policies focus exclusively on offenders. We suggest he is wrong—crime reduction policies also should focus on places. Research has established that crime is concentrated at places; yet to date, policy makers and criminologists have focused most of their attention on two policy prescriptions: use coercion to deter or remove offenders, use forms of social assistance to divert potential offenders from crime, or convince active offenders to pursue legitimate activities (Weisburd, Telep, and Braga, 2010).

Criminology & Public Policy Volume 11 Issue 2