Crime Placement, Displacement, and Deflection

Patterns of crime should be seen as the outcome of crime-control policies and the distribution of opportunities. Such crime-control policies are often argued to have the limited effect of displacing crime, that is, substituting new crimes for prevented crimes. Displacement alone is an inadequate concept; a better formulation centers on the deflection of crime from a target. Some patterns of deflected crime can be regarded as "benign" displacement, while others are considered "malign." Thus conceived, deflection can be used as a policy tool to achieve a more "desirable" pattern of crime. It is already so used, inter alia, by insurance companies with a commercial motive. Better information systems are required to show displacement or deflection, and to assist in monitoring the distribution of crime through space and time. Patterns of criminal activity and victimization can be conceptualized as an outcome of conscious and unconscious decisions by the public, politicians, and the police. These patterns are not immutable, and alternative policies, incorporating an understanding of crime deflection, could lead to new, more equitable, patterns of victimization.

[1]  T. Hägerstrand.  The propagation of innovation waves , 1952 .

[2]  Tim Hope,et al.  Communities and crime reduction , 1988 .

[3]  Don M. Gottfredson,et al.  Prediction and Classification in Criminal Justice Decision Making , 1987, Crime and Justice.

[4]  David J. Bordua.  Firearms Ownership and Violent Crime: A Comparison of Illinois Counties , 1986 .

[5]  K. Heal,et al.  Situational crime prevention : from theory into practice , 1986 .

[6]  Albert Coates.  Criminal Law and Criminology , 1929 .

[7]  R. Clarke,et al.  UNDERSTANDING CRIME DISPLACEMENT: AN APPLICATION OF RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY , 1987 .

[8]  Michael R. Gottfredson.  Victims of crime: The dimensions of risk , 1984 .

[9]  Ken Pease.  Obscene Telephone Calls to Women in England and Wales , 1985 .

[10]  George F. Rengert,et al.  Suburban Burglary: A Time and a Place for Everything. , 1987 .

[11]  C. Tapper.  Computer crime. , 1981, The Medico-legal journal.

[12]  K. Lynch.  What time is this place , 1972 .

[13]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Neighborhood and Crime: The Structural Determinants of Personal Victimization , 1985 .

[14]  Richard F. Sparks,et al.  Multiple Victimization: Evidence, Theory, and Future Research , 1981 .

[15]  Howard Wainer,et al.  Toward the Measurement and Prediction of Victim Proneness , 1983 .

[16]  David P. Farrington,et al.  Predicting Individual Crime Rates , 1987, Crime and Justice.

[17]  Patricia L. Brantingham,et al.  Burglar Mobility and Crime Prevention Planning , 1984 .

[18]  A. M. Guerry.  Essai sur la statistique morale de la France, précéde d'un rapport a l'Académie des sciences, par Mm. Lacroix, Silvestre et Girard , 1833 .

[19]  R. A. Litton,et al.  Crime Prevention and Insurance , 1982 .

[20]  James D. Wright,et al.  Under the Gun: Weapons, Crime, and Violence in America , 1983 .

[21]  H. A. Scarr,et al.  Patterns of burglary , 1973 .

[22]  Max Taylor,et al.  Residential Burglary in the Republic of Ireland: A Situational Perspective , 1988 .

[23]  Thomas A. Reppetto.  Crime Prevention and the Displacement Phenomenon , 1976 .

[24]  P. Allatt,et al.  Residential Security: Containment and Displacement of Burglary , 1984 .

[25]  George L. Kelling,et al.  The Kansas City preventive patrol experiment : a summary report , 1974 .

[26]  P. Haggett.  Locational analysis in human geography , 1967 .

[27]  Brian J. L. Berry,et al.  APPROACHES TO REGIONAL ANALYSIS: A SYNTHESIS , 1964 .

[28]  Simon Hakim,et al.  Interjurisdictional Spillover of Crime and Police Expenditure , 1979 .

[29]  Peter Letkemann,et al.  Crime as Work , 1973 .

[30]  Marvin E. Wolfgang,et al.  The National Survey of Crime Severity , 1985 .

[31]  Philip J. Cook,et al.  Criminal Incapacitation Effects Considered in an Adaptive Choice Framework , 1986 .

[32]  Philip J. Cook,et al.  The Influence of Gun Availability on Violent Crime Patterns , 1983, Crime and Justice.

[33]  Trevor Bennett,et al.  Burglars on Burglary: Prevention and the Offender , 1984 .

[34]  Franklin E. Zimring,et al.  The Medium Is the Message: Firearm Caliber as a Determinant of Death from Assault , 1972, The Journal of Legal Studies.

[35]  Susan H. Nycum,et al.  Computer crime , 1984, CACM.

[36]  Gordon Hawkins,et al.  The Honest Politician's Guide to Crime Control , 1971 .

[37]  Ronald V. Clarke,et al.  The British Gas Suicide Story and Its Criminological Implications , 1988, Crime and Justice.

[38]  Franklin E. Zimring,et al.  The Citizen's Guide to Gun Control , 1987 .

[39]  Thomas Gabor,et al.  The Crime Displacement Hypothesis: an Empirical Examination , 1981 .

[40]  T. Jones,et al.  Recent Book: The Islington Crime Survey (Crime, Victimization and Policing in Inner-City London) , 1987 .

[41]  David Lester,et al.  Crime as Opportunity: A Test of the Hypothesis with European Homicide Rates , 1991 .

[42]  David T. Herbert,et al.  The Geography of Urban Crime , 1982 .

[43]  J. Chaiken,et al.  The Impact of Police Activity on Crime: Robberies on the New York City Subway System , 1974 .