Problems in Policing Exam 2

What is effective focus for analysis for policing

Micro (works for hotspot policing), situation, Institution (if your agency fucking sucks, oops crime rates suck now get fucked), Macro (if the economy is great then crime would probably die or something idk), Person (idk surveys some shit like that, therapy, job training)

If your a chief what’s important

Micro (wow crime is happening here shit I got to put units here or something, better than the other two), Institution (is my police office good), Situation (okay what situations do we encounter, surely not murder)

Chicago School of Crime

sociology program focused on the relationship between community characteristics and crime

Shaw and McKay social disorginazation 

Early studies focused on relationship between structural characteristics of neighborhoods and juvenile delinquency. Would map it out and calculated juvenile delinquency rates across neighborhoods. Observed that neighborhood delinquency rates remained consistent over time and were related to the characteristics of neighborhoods

Early studies focused on meso and micro levels but

then they found out that crime concentration occurs at even smaller geographic units (no shit)

mIcro-level geographies

Street segments, individual addresses (sometimes), addresses, facilities (schools and bars), small clusters of street segments (they are all very small places if you couldn’t tell dumbass)

Street segment

You did this example in class so you should remember this, if you don’t that would be very sad. Portion of a street (both sides of the street) located between two intersections. Street (both sides of the street) located between an intersection and the end of a cul-de-sac/dead-end street

What does of crime concentration predict?

Crime tends to be spatially concentrated in particular areas. The degree of concentration

Weisburd objectives

Bandwith of crime

percentage of street segments in the city and the amount of crime it accounts for (degree of crime concentration)

Weisburd Findings

Small street segments account for a lot of crime. Even very different cities (big or small) have the same exact findings, and even if you go back in time it’s still there. Majority of crimes happen in a minority of place.

Hotspot policing

Deploying more resources to areas that disproportionately have more crime as apposed to more calm areas of crime. Can be done by rotating officers through the hotspot, less visible police resources within the area, having visible policing. Spatiotemporal identification of small areas afflicted by a disportioncate amount of crime. Application of policing resources in public places with the aim of preventing crime or solving crime problems. Rotation of officers between identified hot spots to maximize efficiency. 

Deterrence and Hotspots

By having more police we increase the objective and subjective certainty of getting caught

Braga et al

Meta analysis of empirical research on hot spots policing, considered crime displacement (I won’t rob here) and diffusion (collateral benefits for areas near by hotspots even if not being hotspot policed), identified 78 tests in 65 studies. Inclusion criteria included police led hotspot policing. Quasi-experimental or experimental design, and a level 3 on SMS.

Key findings for Braga

Small but significant reduction of crime. Sample mean of 50 incidents per 1000 citizens. Control group with a monthly crime rate of 50 per 1000 citizens, hotspots policing would result in about 2-3 fewer crimes each month. Considered a small effect sizes. Standards for effect sizes: small (d=0.2), medium (d=0.5), and large (d=0.8). Most effective against drug offenses, least effective against violent crime. Diffusion over displacement (smaller but significant)

Scary chart from brag

Favors control vs favors treatment for each of the studies. For all the right they saw reduction, the left L+ratio.

Orgianizational barriers to implementation

Hot spots policing can be resource intensive

1. Dedicated personanall difficult to allocate

2. Unallocated time elusive

3. Evne targeting 5% of street segments can results in hundreds of hot spots through a jurisdiction

Sustainability concerns

1. decays

2. displace

Diminishing returns

1. Produces only modest reductions in crime

2. Is the juice worth the squeeze/oppritunity cost

technological barriers to implementation

Integrity/accuracy of admin data

1. Admin reporting practices do not require precise location information

Understanding the quality of policing

1. Tracking police location information (fidelity measure)

2. Tracking how police spend their time in hot spots

Solution to implementation issues

Dedicated hotspot units (institutionalizes the activity, enables recruitment and training of officers with the appropriate mindset and skillset, use of and expertise in technology, facilitates community engagement and trust, development of expertise in hot spots policing, promotes accountability by clearly identifying outcomes and metrics for performance)

OR

Outsource hot spot policing (survellience tech, place managers, security guards)

Legitimacy

the belief the police are entitled to call upon the public to follow the law and help combat crime and that members of the public have an obligation to engage in cooperative behaviors and the belief that an authority is legitimate allows an individual to cede decision making to the authority

Effectiveness of Procedural justice determined by

1. Perceived legitimacy: obligation to obey the law; respect and confidence in the police

2. Procedural fairness: Fairness neutrality and respect

3. Willingness to cooperate: Calling police, reporting, assisting when asked

4. Trust/confidence: General trust, confidence, and satisfaction

5. Compliance: Intention and willingness to comply with the police in the future

6. Satisfaction: With police effectiveness, fairness of outcomes, and fairness of procedures

Procedural justice findings

Arrests reduced by 60% in PJ hot spots 

PJ caused crime rates To reduce but post intervention reductions not statistically significant (only during)

Citizens initiated calls not reduce ed at significant level

Law of Crime concentration

In addition to concentrating in places, crime concentrates in individuals

1. A minority of individuals and groups account for the majority of crime

2. Police strategies have developed to reduce crime

Focused Deterrence

Intervention focusing on high risk individuals and/or groups, communicate with the group, and provision of social services and community support. Swift and certain sanctions for continued offending

What can focused deterrence target

Best when targeting a specific crime problem

Has been applied to groups individuals and drug markets 

Boston violence

Observation that a relatively few number of youth and gangs are driving violence

1. High-rarte offenders and groups known to the criminal justice system

2. Interagency working groups were developed to address the problem

Operation Ceasefire in Boston

1. Direct communication to gangs

2. Network of capacity: Interagency working groups launched coordinated efforts

Resulted in 63% reduction in youth homicide (Boston Miracle)

Foucesd deterrence key component

Select a crime problem and collect data to understand key drivers

1. Determined by police and admin records

2. Gang databases

3. CJ officials knowledge

Develop working groups

1. Get community moral voices

2. Lawyers and prosecutors

3. Social services

4. ETc

Direct communication with high risk youth

1. Notification meeting and coordinated message from working group

   1. Enhanced enforcement and supervision (deterrence message)

   2. Available social services and support (support message)

   3. Diverse working group conveys legitimacy

   4. PROVIDE CONTEXT AND RESPONSES

Follow up notification

1. Emphasize deterrence and social support messages

2. Identify challenges and opportunities

Deterrence

Individuals are rational actors and consider the risk of punishment when deciding to offend with certainty of punishment l

legitimacy/procedural jnusstice

public perceptions of it

enhanced legitimacy leads to increased compliance and voluntary law abiding

Informed by the way police that the public

We’ll help you if you et us and we’ll stop you if you make us

Black box problem

We think we know what mechanisms are at play and what they are operating through. We don’t actually know what activities specifically are producing the findings

Implementation barriers

Programs often fail during the planning stage, and the crime reductions are short-lived. What were the implementation and fidelity issues observed in the focused deterrence literature.

Implementation and fidelity issues observed in the focused deterrence literature

Cooperation between work group members, Sustainability of efforts in individual not institutions, delivery of all activities. 

FDJJ thingy

delivered by a juvenile justice agency involving police, focused on high risk juvies. Palm beach is included. SUpervisiona and deterrence. Youth eleigible two groups of youth with prior or current firearm referrals. Placed randomly in treatment and control