Hot spots policing is one of the strategies adopted by police departments in the United States. The approach entails focusing on areas where crime rates are concerning as compared to the rest of the municipality. The definitions of a hot spot may be subject to a subjective judgment by police officers (Weisburd, Davis, & Gill, 2015). The consensus is that it is an area where crime is so frequent, the occurrences have grown predictable (Weisburd, Groff, & Yang, 2014). The police operate on the premise that once it controls the breeding ground for delinquents, which often takes over confined areas, it can prevent crime from spreading and reduce the overall crime rate in a city (Braga, Papachristos, & Hureau, 2014).
I am particularly interested in this topic since the strategy has a robust theoretical framework and is routinely practiced across the country (Ariel, Weinborn, & Sherman, 2016). Rational choice theory assumes that offenders weigh pros and cons before committing a crime and choose particular areas for their illegal activities (Weisburd, & Telep, 2014). Routine activity theory reasons that for a crime to be committed, there must be the convergence of a delinquent intention, a victim’s exposure, and insufficient guardianship (Ratcliffe, Groff, Sorg, & Haberman, 2015).
Lastly, environmental criminology takes spaces and their characteristics in consideration when assessing the likelihood of crime occurrences (Haberman, Groff, Ratcliffe, & Sorg, 2016). In my final paper, I would like to discuss the disparities between the theory and practical implementation as well as the effectiveness of the strategy (Groff et al., 2015).
References
Ariel, B., Weinborn, C., & Sherman, L. W. (2016). “Soft” policing at hot spots – do police community support officers work? A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 12(3), 277-317.
Braga, A. A., Papachristos, A. V., & Hureau, D. M. (2014). The effects of hot spots policing on crime: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Justice Quarterly, 31(4), 633-663.
Groff, E. R., Ratcliffe, J. H., Haberman, C. P., Sorg, E. T., Joyce, N. M., & Taylor, R. B. (2015). Does what police do at hot spots matter? The Philadelphia policing tactics experiment. Criminology, 53(1), 23-53.
Haberman, C. P., Groff, E. R., Ratcliffe, J. H., & Sorg, E. T. (2016). Satisfaction with police in violent crime hot spots: Using community surveys as a guide for selecting hot spots policing tactics. Crime & Delinquency, 62(4), 525-557.
Ratcliffe, J. H., Groff, E. R., Sorg, E. T., & Haberman, C. P. (2015). Citizens’ reactions to hot spots policing: Impacts on perceptions of crime, disorder, safety and police. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 11(3), 393-417.
Weisburd D., Davis, M., & Gill, C. (2015). Increasing collective efficacy and social capital at crime hot spots: New crime control tools for police. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 9(3), 265-274.
Weisburd, D., Groff, E. R., & Yang, S. M. (2014). Understanding and controlling hot spots of crime: The importance of formal and informal social controls. Prevention Science, 15(1), 31-43.
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.