The Law of Crime Concentration at Places: Editors’ Introduction

Abstract

The empirical observation that a small number of micro places generate the bulk of urban crime problems has become a criminological axiom. These micro places, commonly referred to as “hot spots” of crime, have been defined as clusters of street addresses, groupings of street blocks, and particular street intersections and street segments (Weisburd et al. 2009). High-activity crime places have been found in neighborhoods characterized by both low and high levels of social disadvantage (Weisburd and Green 1995; Curman et al. 2015). More recently, researchers have also demonstrated that the concentration of crime at particular places is stable over time (Weisburd et al. 2004; Braga et al. 2010; Andresen and Malleson 2011). The stability of crime at hot spots reinforces the logic that underlies place-based prevention strategies. Without intervention, crime hot spots are not likely to disappear in short time periods. Concentrating crime prevention resources on such places makes good sense both for short term and long term gains (Braga and Weisburd 2010; Weisburd et al. 2004).