SAGE Journal Articles

Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Article 1: Weisburd, D. & Telep, C. W. (2014). Hot spots policing: What we know and what we need to know. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 30(2), 200–220. doi: 10.1177/1043986214525083

Summary: After reviewing the evidence regarding the general effectiveness of hot spots policing (what we know), we focus on areas where new knowledge must be developed (what we need to know). These include the importance of considering the impact of hot spots approaches on nonspatial displacement, assessing what strategies are most effective in addressing hot spots, examining how hot spots policing affects police legitimacy, evaluating whether hot spots policing will be effective in smaller cities and rural areas, investigating the long-term impacts of hot spots policing, and considering whether the adoption of hot spots policing will reduce overall crime in a jurisdiction.

Questions to Consider:

  1. Is displacement an inevitable result of hot spots policing?
     
  2. Is hot spots policing applicable to small cities and rural areas? Why or why not?
     
  3. What type of interventions do the authors suggest might have the most potential for long-term impact on hot spots?

 

Article 2: Andresen, M. A. & Malleson, N. (2014). Police foot patrol and crime displacement: A local analysis. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 30(2), 186–199. doi: 10.1177/1043986214525076

Summary: Police patrol, motorized and foot, has a long history of being used as a crime prevention method. Scientific evaluations of this crime prevention technique have been undertaken for at least 40 years, with mixed results. One of the important questions to be answered regarding the implementation of a police patrol is the presence of crime displacement: criminal activity simply moving around the corner, away from the primary patrol area. Previous investigations of this phenomenon have found that, most often, crime displacement is nonexistent or less than crime reductions in the primary area of interest. In this article, we investigate local crime displacement. We use a spatial point pattern test that can identify changes in the spatial patterns/distribution of crime even if crime in all areas has decreased. We find moderate evidence for the presence of this spatial shift and discuss the implications.

Questions to Consider:

  1. What is the difference between displacement and diffusion?
     
  2. What do the findings of the spatial point pattern test tell us?
     
  3. What type of crime does foot patrol had the largest impact on according to the present study?