What You'll Learn
The Concept
One of the most important developments in contemporary policing is the recognition that the geographic distribution of crime is highly uneven. Within a city containing thousands of streets, some locations may experience little serious crime while relatively small numbers of locations repeatedly generate shootings, robberies, drug activity, disorder, thefts, or calls for service. Averages can conceal this concentration.
Suppose a city reports 1,000 violent crimes. Knowing the citywide total provides useful information. Knowing that 300 of those crimes occurred at 25 micro-locations provides operationally different information. This distinction gave rise to place-based policing.
A crime hot spot is generally a relatively small geographic place where crime is unusually concentrated. Hot spots can include street segments, intersections, apartment complexes, transit stations, nightlife corridors, parking facilities, commercial locations, or other narrowly defined places. CrimeSolutions describes hot-spots strategies as concentrating law-enforcement attention on small geographic places where crime is concentrated and currently rates the general practice as Effective for reducing overall crime.
Place-based criminology draws heavily from theories of opportunity. A location may generate crime because it repeatedly brings together likely offenders, attractive targets, limited guardianship, poor environmental design, high pedestrian traffic, alcohol, cash, transportation access, weak management, predictable routines, or recurring disputes. From this perspective, place itself becomes part of the explanation.
A common mistake is to equate hot-spots policing with merely parking patrol cars in a high-crime area. A hot-spot strategy describes where attention is concentrated, not necessarily what police do there. Possible interventions include visible patrol, foot patrol, offender-focused investigation, problem-oriented policing, environmental changes, business partnerships, traffic enforcement, code enforcement, surveillance, community engagement, or targeted criminal investigation.
One of the most obvious criticisms of place-based policing is displacement — if police suppress crime at one intersection, do offenders simply move one block away? Displacement is possible and should be evaluated. But displacement is not inevitable. Researchers have also documented diffusion of benefits, in which crime reductions extend into nearby locations not directly receiving the intervention. An advanced evaluation should therefore examine both the target area and surrounding areas before concluding that an intervention succeeded.
Police presence also raises a question of dosage. How long should officers remain? How frequently should they return? At what time? Should deployment be predictable or varied? The effectiveness of a place-based strategy may depend not simply on presence but on how police resources are delivered.
Crime reduction cannot be the sole measure of place-based policing. Researchers increasingly examine whether concentrated police activity affects public trust, perceptions of fairness, fear of crime, willingness to cooperate, pedestrian activity, complaints, and quality of life. A police strategy could theoretically reduce crime while simultaneously producing significant community costs. The best policing strategies seek crime reduction and legitimacy simultaneously.
Real-World Application
A crime analyst identifies that 40 percent of a city's robberies occurred at 12 locations over the past year. Before deploying officers, a thoughtful commander asks: What is driving crime at each location specifically? Is it the physical environment, a particular business, a recurring group of individuals, or a combination? What tactics are appropriate for each location? How will we measure success — and will we also measure what happens in the surrounding blocks? The answers shape a strategy that is more likely to produce durable results than simply adding patrol presence.
Why It Matters
For Police Officers
Understanding place-based criminology helps officers and supervisors ask better questions about deployment. The goal is not just presence but targeted, purposeful activity at the right locations, at the right times, using the right tactics.
For Students
Hot-spots policing is one of the most research-supported strategies in modern policing. Understanding its evidence base — and its limitations — is essential for evaluating crime-reduction claims and policy proposals.
Think About It
At what geographic level should crime concentration be measured — city block, intersection, address?
Does hot-spots policing work equally well for violent crime and property crime?
Which hot-spots tactics produce the greatest crime reduction with the least community disruption?
How should displacement be measured, and what would constitute an acceptable level?
Sources & Further Reading
U.S. Department of Justice, CrimeSolutions. Hot Spots Policing: Effective for reducing overall crime. crimesolutions.ojp.gov.
U.S. Department of Justice, CrimeSolutions. Lowell, Massachusetts Hot Spots Policing program evaluation: Effective. crimesolutions.ojp.gov.
Weisburd, D. (2015). The law of crime concentration and the criminology of place. Criminology, 53(2), 133–157.
Braga, A. A., Papachristos, A. V., & Hureau, D. M. (2014). The effects of hot spots policing on crime. Justice Quarterly, 31(4), 633–663.