By: Auzeen Shariati and Rob T. Guerette

Traditional criminology has focused on the criminal nature of offenders as a means for reducing crime. In contrast, situational crime prevention (SCP) is a process of multiple stages, and seeks to understand where, when, and how crime incidents occur. Similar to epidemiology, SCP has sought to alter environments which host crime behavior in order to make them less suitable for offending. Based on an analysis of the incidence and distribution of a given crime problem, the SCP approach then identifies risk factors, formulates and implements appropriate solutions, and evaluates the results. In this way, the individual “propensity” of offenders, like individual diagnoses, becomes less important, at least as a means of prevention. This chapter discusses in more detail the situational crime prevention approach. Following a brief description of its historical development, the theoretical foundations are presented. An overview of the process and types of prevention techniques are then outlined followed by a discussion on the existing evidence of effectiveness.

December 2017 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-44124-5_22

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.  

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

Herman Goldstein

In his seminal work on problem-oriented policing, Herman Goldstein emphasizes the importance of addressing the root causes of crime and disorder within communities. Goldstein’s book provides a framework for law enforcement agencies to shift their focus from reactive responses to proactive measures aimed at preventing recurring issues.

The core concept of problem-oriented policing lies in identifying specific problems within a community, analyzing the underlying factors contributing to those problems, and developing tailored strategies to mitigate them. By working collaboratively with community members, local organizations, and other stakeholders, law enforcement can implement sustainable solutions that address the root causes of crime and disorder.

Goldstein’s book serves as a guide for police departments looking to adopt a more proactive and community-centered approach to policing. By encouraging officers to engage with the community, gather data on recurring issues, and implement evidence-based strategies, problem-oriented policing offers a promising alternative to traditional law enforcement practices.

Overall, Herman Goldstein’s book on problem-oriented policing provides valuable insights and practical tools for law enforcement agencies seeking to build safer and more resilient communities through proactive problem-solving strategies.

NY. McGraw-Hill. 1990. 221p.

By Magdalena Domínguez

Worldwide, gang proliferation is fought mostly with tough punishment strategies such as sweeps. In this paper, I study their causal effect on crime for arrested individuals and known peers following a difference-in-differences strategy. I also take advantage of the network structure I retrieved to assess peer effects and identify key players. I perform such an analysis with novel administrative data from the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, where Latin gangs expanded rapidly and where a stark policy change occurred. Results show significant reductions in crimes of arrested individuals and their peers, particularly in crimes against the person. The areas of the sweeps benefit from improvements in crime, health and education. I further conduct an innovative counterfactual policy exercise comparing sweep outcomes with theoretically predicted crime reductions when removing key players. This exercise indicates that sweeps could have achieved a 50% larger reduction in criminal activity had key players been removed. In this way, a network analysis provides insights on how to improve policy design.

IEB Working Paper 2021/03. University of Barcelona, Institute of Economics, 2021. 55p.

By Claudia Gross Shader, and David G. Jones

In recent years, the characteristics of retail crime have shifted and become more sophisticated. There is some emerging evidence that organized retail crime (ORC) has increased due, in part, to an increased use of online marketplaces for selling stolen goods. This audit is focused on fencing operations related to ORC. ”Fencing” is the practice of reselling stolen goods through online marketplaces, unregulated markets such as illegal street markets, storefronts that buy stolen goods, and by shipping goods for sale outside of the U.S. What We Found This audit presents seven steps for the City to improve its approach to addressing the organized fencing operations that underpin ORC in Seattle: . Support City participation in collaborative efforts among agencies, including collaboration with the new Organized Retail Crime Unit in the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. Leverage federal and state crime analysis resources. Use in-custody interviews of “boosters”—people who steal on behalf of fencing operations—to gather information on fencing operations. Explore new uses of technology to address ORC. Use place-based approaches to disrupt unregulated street markets. Follow the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office “prosecution checklist” for ORC cases. Consider City support of legislation that addresses ORC. Recommendations For each step, we have included specific recommendations for actions that the City could take to improve its approach to ORC. Given the City’s current resource constraints, especially for the Seattle Police Department (SPD), our recommendations largely focus on leveraging new and existing collaborations, using existing expertise and resources, and exploring new technologies.

Seattle Office of City Auditor . 2023. 43p.

By Peter Andreas and Ethan Nadelmann

In this illuminating history that spans past campaigns against piracy and slavery to contemporary campaigns against drug trafficking and transnational terrorism, Peter Andreas and Ethan Nadelmann explain how and why prohibitions and policing practices increasingly extend across borders. The internationalization of crime control is too often described as simply a natural and predictable response to the growth of transnational crime in an age of globalization. Andreas and Nadelmann challenge this conventional view as at best incomplete and at worst misleading. The internationalization of policing, they demonstrate, primarily reflects ambitious efforts by generations of western powers to export their own definitions of "crime," not just for political and economic gain but also in an attempt to promote their own morals to other parts of the world.

A thought-provoking analysis of the historical expansion and recent dramatic acceleration of international crime control, Policing the Globe provides a much-needed bridge between criminal justice and international relations on a topic of crucial public importance.

New York; Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006. 348p.

By Juan Felipe García, Daniel Mejia, and Daniel Ortega .

The Plan Nacional de Vigilancia Comunitaria por Cuadrantes (PNVCC) is a new police patrolling program introduced in the eight major cities of Colombia in 2010 by the National Police. The strategy divides the largest cities into small geographical areas (cuadrantes), assigns six policemen to each, establishes a new patrolling protocol involving more community contact, and holds officers accountable for crime in their assigned area. The plan warranted a comprehensive training program for over 9,000 police officers aimed at improving interpersonal skills and implementation of the new patrolling protocols. By staggering the training schedule between three randomly chosen cohorts of police stations, we generate experimental variation in the exposure to training and in the effective implementation of the new police protocols induced by the Plan Cuadrantes. Comparing the 4 months immediately after training with the same months from the previous year, we find a significant reduction in several types of crime attributable to the training program, ranging from around .13 of a standard deviation for homicides to .18 of a standard deviation for brawls. These impacts are driven by very large effects in high crime areas and very small -or zero- effects in low crime neighborhoods. Once we take into account the high spatial concentration of crime, the estimated effects account for an overall reduction in the number of homicides of about 22%. We suggest that the training program affected crime by increasing the patrol police’s sense of accountability to the population and also possibly through higher police motivation. Large efficiency gains in public service provision may be attainable with relatively inexpensive interventions that bring public servants closer to their clients.

Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes–Facultad de Economía–CEDE, 2013. 27p.

By Nora C. Krinitsky

“The Politics of Crime Control: Race, Policing, and Reform in Twentieth-Century Chicago” is a political history of urban policing that examines the integral role of crime control in the governance of modern American cities. It does so through a case study of policing and reform in Chicago from the interwar decades through the post-World War II years, a period that saw massive changes including African American migration, immigration, industrialization, and labor unrest. Crime control served as the central political proxy through which city leaders, reformers, and law enforcement officers attempted to achieve urban order, and in so doing, constructed modern social and racial hierarchies. These officials and reformers contributed to the construction of the coercive state, a state apparatus that prioritized social order as the primary mode through which to express state legitimacy and exercise state power. In the context of early-twentieth-century Chicago, coercive state strategies worked in tandem with Progressive reformers and anti-crime activists to establish and reinforce spatial boundaries and to reify and redefine social hierarchies. Local police discretion represented the primary coercive state tool for addressing urban disorder, as well as one of the most intransigent and opaque modes of state power, especially in the service of defining and reinforcing racial hierarchy. The immediate, discretionary interactions between police and city residents served as one of the primary sites of racial formation in these decades, and elicited investigation, critique, and proposals for reform from myriad urban communities, other state institutions, and municipal reform organizations. Policing, therefore, represented the very intersection of coercive state power, municipal politics, racialization, and efforts for reform.

Ann Arbor, University of Michigan,2017. 409p.