It has been debated by researchers that, much attention should be addressed to crime potential areas by increasing the number of police personnel in those areas rather than evenly spreading them over the whole area in urban areas and providing proper lighting in streets. Scholarly evidence shows that there is a significant decrease in crime when such methods are applied. This brings about the need to examine the evidence supporting the consolidation of the police force and efforts on such crime hotspots. The methods used in this research question include a review of secondary data and online database analysis. Police data on crime reports was the primary source of data that was reviewed in this project. Data collection was conducted on online databases on an international scale. Some of the cases were not documented, however.
The selection criterion used was that consideration whether street lighting was used in the research as the principal involvement. A crime outcome measure was also found out to be of great importance and was used. The focus was majorly on property and violence crimes. Control experimental areas were of great significance too. This was because it is hard to evaluate results without these comparable control areas.
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Keywords: crime hotspots, street lighting, consolidation
Summary of Evidence
Evidence shows that different intervention methods can be applied to curb crime in crime hotspots. Various methods were focused on in the study. It became evident that increasing the number of police officers in crime-prone areas, drug trafficking corners and such other areas reduces the number of criminal cases reported from such regions. It was noted that however, this method alone could not sufficiently control crime. Other measures need to be incorporated in the process. A focus on such violent hotspots of crime significantly leads to less violence and property associated crime cases (Braga, and Hureau 2014). However, achieving full-time police patrol is not easy since it is costly. On the other hand, concentrating police officers in one place leaves other areas prone to random crimes and thus increasing vulnerability in those areas.
An enhanced street lighting significantly affects the rate of crime and chaos in such places (Nagina and Lum, 2015). It is evident that better lighting in crime-prone areas results in a remarkably positive impact in the direction of crime reduction. This is because criminals are afraid of committing a crime in open and well-lit places since they may be readily identified and acted upon. This reduces the burden assigned to the police officers in the patrol of such places.
It can be said that lack of advanced lighting in the crime-prone areas promotes the rampant growth of crime hotspots this can be controlled by ensuring enough lighting in such places and consolidation of police officers in such locations.
The average time for the study is 12 weeks before and after the implementation of security policies such as better lighting and assignment of police officers to crime hotspots. Any search that spent too much time or less time is considered ineffective since there may be other reasons as to why the crime continued or reduced other than the ones in the study. This was one criterion used for selection of studies that deserved consideration. All studies that had no control areas were not considered for analysis since it would be hard to tell the difference and thus any change would be hard to determine its course.
Limitations
During the research, the researcher faced some limitations. These were hindrances on his way towards achieving the primary aim of the study. This research was no exception. One incidence of limitation is the fact that the documents reviewed may already be corrupt. This can affect the whole process from scratch. Stages like identification of crime hotspots may be affected by unrecorded crime cases that the police assumed or maybe took a bribe for. Limitations may arise from incomplete researches which may pose as complete ones. Analyzing these reports may mislead the researcher to make conclusions that turn out to be incorrect. Incidences of lack of control areas and studies including less than twenty occurrences of crimes can be biased and thus were excluded. This was to ensure proper quality findings.
Conclusion
The research was of great significance in relevance to curbing crime in crime hotspots and especially in urban areas. It focused on methods of identifying a crime hotspot, methods that can be implemented to reduce such incidences of crime, how to implement these methods and how useful they can be. The research looked at the various ways of ensuring security. It looked at the different effects of these methods and which fit which locations.
It is evident that lack of enough police patrol and lack of advanced lighting in crime-prone areas gives room for crime hotspots to thrive. This information is essential to the relevant parties for it enables them easily know how to tackle crimes in these areas by most effectively, preventing them. It gives the go-ahead to further research into this topic especially towards techno-based criminals who may commit crime from far away through computerized systems. These types of criminals are harder to catch, and expert knowledge and in-depth research are needed. Generally, we can say that the study was a success. This is because it focused on all the essential elements and attained the scope of the research. It is clear on what measures to take to curb crime in urban areas especially crimes relevant to burglary, theft, and violence.
References
Braga, A. A., Papachristos, A. V., & Hureau, D. M. 2014. The effects of hot spots policing on crime: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Justice Quarterly, 31(4), pp, 633-663.
Nagin, D. S., Solow, R. M., & Lum, C. 2015. Deterrence, criminal opportunities, and police: Criminology, pp, 53(1), 74-100.
