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POP GUIDES

PROBLEM ORIENTED GUIDES FOR POLICE

Posts in crimes
Home Invasion Robbery

This guide begins by describing the problem of home invasion robbery and reviewing factors that increase its risks. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local home invasion robbery problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about these from evaluative research and police practice. Home invasion robbery is but one aspect of the larger set of problems related to residential and violent crime. This guide is limited to addressing the particular harms created by home invasion robbery.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Gun Violence Among Serious Young Offenders

This guide addresses serious youth gun violence, describing the problem and reviewing factors that increase the risks of it. It then identifies a series of questions that might help you analyze your local problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem, and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice. Criminal misuse of guns kills or injures tens of thousands of Americans every year. In 2000, more than 10,000 Americans were killed with guns, and guns are much more likely to be used in homicides of teens and young adults than in homicides of people of other ages.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Graffiti

This guide addresses effective responses to the problem of graffiti—the wide range of markings, etchings, and paintings that deface public or private property. In recent decades, graffiti has become an extensive problem, spreading from the largest cities to other locales. Despite the common association of graffiti with gangs, graffiti is widely found in jurisdictions of all sizes, and graffiti offenders are by no means limited to gangs.

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Drug Dealing in Privately Owned Apartment Complexes

If you have an apartment complex in your community where drug dealing is occurring, you may have found that simply making arrests has not closed the drug market. What else could be done? Why is this problem occurring? What conditions facilitate the drug market's operations, and what remedies will work best? This guidebook addresses these issues. It describes the types of drug markets found in apartment complexes and provides questions to ask when analyzing those markets. It suggests ways to encourage property owners to take more responsibility for problems. Finally, it summarizes the full range of measures you can use to address drug markets in apartment complexes.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Drive-By Shootings

This guide begins by describing the problem of drive-by shootings and reviewing factors that increase its risks. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local drive-by shootings problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice. Drive-by shootings are but one aspect of the larger set of problems related to gang and gun violence. This guide is limited to addressing the particular harms drive-by shootings cause..

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Disorderly Youth in Public Places

Disorderly youth in public places constitute one of the most common problems most police agencies must handle. Dealing with youth disorder requires a significant amount of police time, particularly in suburban and rural communities. Disorderly youth are a common source of complaints from urban residents and merchants, as well as from shoppers and merchants in malls and business districts.1 Dealing with youth disorder appropriately requires considerable police skill and sensitivity. Officers must balance youths’ rights against complainants’ rights, distinguish legitimate from illegitimate complaints, at times be firm and at times be flexible with young people, and remain sensitive to how the public will perceive police actions.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Disorder at Day Laborer Sites

This guide addresses the problem of disorder at day laborer sites. It begins by describing the problem and reviewing factors that increase the risks of it. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about them from evaluative research and practice. Disorder at day laborer sites is but one aspect of the larger set of problems related to both public disorder and to illegal immigration.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Cruising

This guide begins by describing the problem of cruising, and reviewing factors that contribute to it. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local cruising problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem, and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice. You should note that while both cruising and street racing involve vehicles, some primary differences exist between them. Cruising is a pastime largely confined to downtown areas; sanctioned cruising can also provide an economic boost to the community. Conversely, street racing is typically an underground affair, causing many related problems.

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Crimes Against Tourists

This guide addresses tourist crime, beginning by describing the problem and reviewing the factors that contribute to it. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem. Finally, it provides a number of measures your agency can take to address the problem and to evaluate responses. The guide addresses tourist crimes committed in the United States, although the information provided here will no doubt benefit those readers dealing with the problem abroad.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Financial Crimes Against the Elderly

This guide addresses the problem of financial crimes against the elderly. It begins by describing the problem and reviewing risk factors. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and describes the conditions under which they are most effective. Financial crimes against the elderly fall under two general categories: fraud committed by strangers, and financial exploitation by relatives and caregivers. These categories sometimes overlap in terms of target selection and the means used to commit the crime. However, the differences in the offender-victim relationships suggest different methods for analyzing and responding to the problem.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Robbery of Convenience Stores

This guide begins by describing the problem of convenience store robbery and reviewing factors that increase its risk. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local convenience store robbery problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about these from evaluative research and police practice.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Clandestine Methamphetamine Labs 2nd Edition

This guide addresses the problem of clandestine methamphetamine§ labs. U.S. state and local police report that methamphetamine trafficking and abuse has become their most pressing illegal drug problem in recent years, surpassing even crack cocaine. Although offenders manufacture a variety of illicit drugs in clandestine labs [e.g., amphetamines, MDMA (ecstasy), methcathinone, PCP, LSD, and fentanyl], methamphetamine accounts for 80 to 90 percent of the clandestine labs’ total drug production.2 Many of the responses to methamphetamine labs also may be appropriate to other types of drug labs.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Child Pornography on the Internet

The guide begins by describing the problem and reviewing factors that increase the risks of Internet child pornography. It then identifies a series of questions that might assist you in analyzing your local Internet child pornography problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about these from evaluative research and police practice.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Child Abuse and Neglect in the Home

This guide begins by describing the problem of child abuse and neglect in the home, and reviewing factors that increase its risks. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local child maltreatment problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice. Child abuse and neglect in the home is but one aspect of the larger set of problems related to child maltreatment that occurs in a variety of places and by people with varied relationships to the victim.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Theft of Customers' Personal Property in Cafés and Bars

We begin this guide by describing the problem of theft of customers’ personal property from cafés and bars and reviewing associated risk factors. We then identify a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem, and, finally, review responses to this type of problem. At present, evaluative research—whether carried out independently or by the police—is scarce; consequently it is not possible to draw any firm conclusions as to which responses to theft of customers’ personal property from cafés and bars are the most effective. Nevertheless, we review several responses to this problem and make tentative statements as to their effectiveness.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Burglary of Single-Family Houses

This guide addresses the problem of burglary of single-family houses. It begins by describing the problem and reviewing risk factors. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem, and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Burglary of Retail Establishments

Retail burglaries are a problem for many communities. A British survey found that stores lose as much to burglars as they do to shoplifters. These losses impact the viability of businesses and, consequently, of the communities around them. Although much research has been conducted on burglary in general, little of it has specifically focused on retail burglaries–break-ins at stores to steal cash or goods.† However, the research that has been done points to a number of effective responses to the problem. This guide reviews what is known about retail burglaries, suggests ways to analyze them in your jurisdiction, and provides guidance as to appropriate responses.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

Burglary at Single-Family House Construction Sites

This guide begins by describing the problem of burglary at single-family house construction sites and reviewing the factors that increase its risks. It then identifies a series of questions that can help analyze your local burglary problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem of burglary at single-family house construction sites as identified through research and police practice.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing