NCJ Number
160732
Date Published
1995
Length
18 pages
Annotation
The explanation of crime has been preoccupied with individuals and communities as units of analysis, but recent work on offender decisionmaking, situations, environments, routine activities, and the spatial organization of drug dealing in the United States suggest a new unit of analysis--places.
Abstract
Crime is concentrated heavily in a few "hot spots" of crime, and the concentration of crime among repeat places is more intensive than it is among repeat offenders. Components of this concentration are analogous to components of individual criminal careers: onset, desistance, continuance, specialization, and desistance. The theoretical explanation for variation in these components is stronger at the level of places than it is at the level of individuals, suggesting the need to rethink crime theories and to devise a new approach to theorizing about crime for public policy. The challenge for future research is to elaborate the relationships among aspects of the criminal event and crime control. 58 references and 2 notes