Regulation for High-Crime Places: Theory, Evidence, and Principles

Abstract

Crime tends to be concentrated at a relatively small proportion of proprietary places—small parcels of land that often have a single address and are used for a specific purpose, like housing or entertainment. This fact points to the potential of regulation to reduce crime. Drawing on research and theory, this article discusses why we should be concerned about crime places, how the management of places influences crimes, why and how place management regulation might be helpful for reducing crimes, criteria for selecting place-based regulatory instruments, why it might be necessary to adjust such regulation to neighborhood characteristics, and principles for applying a regulatory approach to crime places.