U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

View Inside the "Black Box" of Hot Spots Policing From a Sample of Police Commanders

NCJ Number
250799
Journal
Police Quarterly Dated: June 2016
Author(s)
C. P. Haberman
Date Published
June 2016
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This study used observations of crime strategy meetings and interviews with police commanders to "get inside the black box of hot spots policing."
Abstract

The findings focus on what the studied police commanders believed they were doing and why they believed those tactics would be effective during hot spots policing implemented under non-experimental conditions. An example causal model for the effectiveness of hot spots policing that emerged from the data is presented. While the commanders' views aligned with commonly used policing tactics and crime control theories, their underlying theoretical rationale is complex. The presented model provides one causal model that could be tested in future hot spots policing evaluations, and a discussion is presented of how the study's methodology can be applied in other jurisdictions to define localized causal models and improve hot spot policing evaluations. (Publisher abstract modified)