Cambridge University Hot Spot Experiment
Criminologist Professor Lawrence Sherman set up a long term
experiment with the police department to study crime in a scientific manner in
Manchester and come with solutions to deter these crimes. The study was designed to study crime hot
spots with the strategic placement of officers at these locations.
Professor Sherman stated that his research done in the
United States produced positive results with a crime reduction of two-thirds
which is 66%. His experiment in the
Cambridge experiment was to see if he could reduce crime by 50%. In theory his positive results in the U.S.
may be emulated in the Cambridge Experiment.
He has shown in his previous experiments that crime usually
takes place within 3% of locations in a city.
Those locations are considered hot spots. He has shown that by upping police presence
in those areas crime incidences have been reduced. I believe that by removing police presence
from low crime areas and concentrating them in hotspots simultaneously within a
city will serve as a deterrent to crime rates.
The issue of crime displacement was brought up by having offenders locate
to another turf. If he places police in
all hotspots then the issue of turf wars would be eliminated. By eliminating beats he will be able to have
police focus on all crime hotspots around the clock. Police will still have to respond to
incidence calls that relate to behind closed doors but overall according to his
previous results crime rates will in fact be reduced. Having police located in strategic locations
will allow them to respond to incidences more rapidly. I do not think there will be a need to
increase police officers on the force because by eliminating unnecessary
patrols of low crime areas more officers will be freed up to be positioned in
hotspot areas.
No comments:
Post a Comment