These plans of action often include the use of some type of situational crime prevention to influence existing crime patterns. The issue of crime displacement, which has been a central concern of crime prevention proponents for many years, occupies a position of great importance in the criminology of place. Indeed, the argument that any effort to solve problems in one place will simply divert offending to other locations is occasionally used by some practitioners as an argument against the implementation of place-oriented problem-solving. The issue of crime displacement is examined in some detail, conceptual tools are offered to help define crime displacement, and ways in which crime displacement can actually be optimized as a crime control tool are discussed. 34 references, 3 notes, 2 tables, and 2 figures