Combining insights from two distinct research traditions—the communities and crime tradition that focuses on why some neighborhoods have more crime than others, and the burgeoning crime and place literature that focuses on crime in micro-geographic units—this book explores the spatial scale of crime. Criminologist John Hipp articulates a new theoretical perspective that provides an individual- and household-level theory to underpin existing ecological models of neighborhoods and crime. A focus is maintained on the agents of change within neighborhoods and communities, and how households nested in neighborhoods might come to perceive problems in the neighborhood and then have a choice of exit, voice, loyalty, or neglect (EVLN). A characteristic of many crime incidents is that they happen at a particular spatial location and a point in time. These two simple insights suggest the need for both a spatial and a longitudinal perspective in studying crime events. The spatial question focuses on why crime seems to occur more frequently in some locations than others, and the consequences of this for certain areas of cities, or neighborhoods. The longitudinal component focuses on how crime impacts, and is impacted by, characteristics of the environment. This book looks at where offenders, targets, and guardians might live, and where they might spatially travel throughout the environment, exploring how vibrant neighborhoods are generated, how neighborhoods change, and what determines why some neighborhoods decline over time while others avoid this fate. Hipp’s theoretical model provides a cohesive response to the general question of the spatial scale of crime and articulates necessary future directions for the field. This book is essential for students and scholars interested in spatial-temporal criminology.

One of the key methods of reducing and dealing with criminal activity is to accurately gauge and then analyse the geographical distribution of crime (from small scale to large scale areas). Once the police and government know what areas suffer most from criminal activity they can assess why this is the case and then deal with it in the most effective way. Crime mapping and the spatial analysis of crime data have become recognised as powerful tools for the study and control of crime. Much of the emerging demand for more information and detailed crime pattern analysis have been driven by legislative changes, such as the UK's new Crime and Disorder Act which has placed a joint statutory duty on Police Forces and Local Authorities to produce crime and disorder audits for their areas. The book sets out methods used in the fields of Geographical Information Systems and highlights areas of best practice, examines the types of problems to which spatial crime analysis can be applied, reviews the capabilities and limitations of existing techniques, and explores the future directions of spatial crime analysis and the need for training. It centres on a series of case studies highlighting the experiences of academics and practitioners in agencies centrally involved in the partnership approach to crime prevention. Practitioners and academics not only in the UK but also worldwide should be interested in the book as an up-to-date information resource and a practical guide.

The field of environmental criminology is a staple theoretical framework in contemporary criminological theory. With this book, Martin Andresen presents the first comprehensive and sole-authored textbook on this influential and compelling school of criminological thought. He covers a wide range of topics, including: the origins of environmental criminology; the primary theoretical frameworks, such as routine activity theory, geometric theory of crime, rational choice theory, and the pattern theory of crime; the practical application of environmental criminology; an examination of how theories are operationalized and tested; policy implications for the practice of crime prevention. As well as these "popular topics", Andresen also discusses also a number of topics that are at the leading edge of research within environmental criminology. This text will be ideal for courses on crime prevention, where students are often encouraged to consider policy problems and apply theory to practice. This book offers up environmental criminology as a theoretical framework for making sense of complex neighbourhood problems, meaning that it will be perfect for modules on geography of crime, crime analysis and indeed, environmental criminology. It would also be a good supplement for courses on criminological theory.

The study of crime has focused primarily on why particular people commit crime or why specific communities have higher crime levels than others. In The Criminology of Place, David Weisburd, Elizabeth Groff, and Sue-Ming Yang present a new and different way of looking at the crime problem by examining why specific streets in a city have specific crime trends over time. Based on a 16-year longitudinal study of crime in Seattle, Washington, the book focuses our attention on small units of geographic analysis-micro communities, defined as street segments. Half of all Seattle crime each year occurs on just 5-6 percent of the city's street segments, yet these crime hot spots are not concentrated in a single neighborhood and street by street variability is significant. Weisburd, Groff, and Yang set out to explain why. The Criminology of Place shows how much essential information about crime is inevitably lost when we focus on larger units like neighborhoods or communities. Reorienting the study of crime by focusing on small units of geography, the authors identify a large group of possible crime risk and protective factors for street segments and an array of interventions that could be implemented to address them. The Criminology of Place is a groundbreaking book that radically alters traditional thinking about the crime problem and what we should do about it.

This book addresses the need for policing scholarship to strengthen its empirical cumulative knowledge base by replicating and reproducing earlier studies. The chapters in this volume advance policing research by replicating and reproducing earlier studies, investigating the generalizability of research findings, and making data and research methods available to other researchers to encourage scientific exploration of previous research findings. Each chapter addresses important scientific goals of validity, reliability, and generalizability, which build our cumulative knowledge of what is known in policing research, ultimately informing policymaking. The book offers insights into why replicating and reproducing policing scholarship is critical; from emphasizing the importance of making data and study material publicly available to facilitate replications and reproductions, to reproducing studies in new contexts and cautioning against making policy-making decisions based on studies that have not been replicated. This volume highlights the immense value in shifting researchers’ priorities – even slightly – to focus less so on originality and innovation to make room for replications and reproductions, thereby shedding light on how true, empirical knowledge on policing and police practice is dependent on it. This book was originally published as a special issue of Police Practice and Research.

One of the oldest and most extensive forms of criminology falls within what is referred to, among other names, as social ecology. Beginning with the work of Guerry and Quetelet, this theory became the dominate paradigm in explaining crime with the work of the Chicago School in the early 1900s, social disorganization theory, and neighborhood research attempting to deal with crime in deteriorating cities. Social ecology is also the basis for the research being conducted in environmental criminology. This volume offers a selection of the most influential works in social ecology and environmental criminology. It begins with research from human ecology and the Chicago School, extending through some of the research in social disorganization theory. It encompasses some of the major journal articles from the 1980s and 1990s in neighborhoods and crime, and then addresses some of the quintessential works in environmental criminology. It ends with groundbreaking work in this area that may indicate the future direction of the field. This valuable collection includes an excellent introduction by Jeff Walker.

This volume of the series was designed to provide a comprehensive primer on the existing best practices and emerging developments in the study and design research on crime and criminology. The work as a whole includes chapters on the measurement of criminal typologies, the offenders, offending and victimization, criminal justice organizations, and specialized measurement techniques. Each chapter is written by experts in the field and they provide an excellent survey of the literature in the relevant area. More importantly, each chapter provides a description of the various methodological and substantive challenges presented in conducting research on these issues and denotes possible solutions to these dilemmas. An emphasis was placed on research that has been conducted outside of the United States and was designed to give the reader a broader more global understanding of the social context of research. The goal of this volume is to provide a definitive reference for professionals in the field, researchers, and students. This volume in the Handbooks in Criminology and Criminal Justice series identifies the principal topical areas of research in this field and summarizes the various methodological and substantive challenges presented in conducting research on these issues. In each chapter, authors provide a summary of the prominent data collection efforts in the topical area, provide an overview of the current methodological work, discuss the challenges in the measurement of central concepts in the subject area, and identify new horizons emerging in data collection and measurement. We encouraged authors to discuss work conducted in an international context and to incorporate discussion of qualitative methodologies when appropriate.