Citizens’ reactions to hot spots policing: impacts on perceptions of crime, disorder, safety and police
Open accessAbstract
We explore whether the use of foot patrol, problem-oriented policing and offender-focused policing at violent crime hot spots negatively impacted the community’s perceptions of crime and disorder, perceived safety, satisfaction with police and their perceptions of procedural justice. We report on a repeated cross-sectional survey that was mailed before and after the deployment of concentrated police interventions in 60 small areas of Philadelphia, PA, as part of the Philadelphia Policing Tactics Experiment. Eighty-one violent crime hot spots were randomly allocated to one of three treatments (20 each), or to a control assignment (21). Impacts on the community via seven scales were analyzed using OLS models with orthogonal contrast-coded treatment variables and demographic covariates. The OLS models estimating changes in the community’s opinions from pre- to post-intervention uncovered no statistically significant changes on any of the dependent variables relative to control locations, irrespective of the treatment type. Even though one experimental treatment condition (offender-focused) reported statistically significant violent crime reductions, the police activity that generated the crime reduction did not noticeably change community perceptions of crime and disorder, perceived safety, satisfaction with police or procedural justice. As implemented in Philadelphia, none of the policing tactics had measurable changes in resident perception within the communities that were targeted. The results do not support the suggestion that hot spots policing negatively impacts the community. At the same time, no positive benefits were generated.
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Stone's (1993) public housing surveys, Braga and Bond's (2009) resident interviews, Ratcliffe et al. (2015) mail surveys, and Cooley et al's. (2019) resident surveys suggested no pre-post change in fear in treatment relative to control sites.
“Stone's (1993) public housing surveys, Braga and Bond's (2009) resident interviews, Ratcliffe et al. (2015) mail surveys, and Cooley et al's. (2019) resident surveys, for example, suggested no pre–post change in fear in treatment relative to control sites.”
From Problem-oriented policing for reducing crime and disorder: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis (2020) · cites this paper as Ratcliffe et al. (2015)
The public perception survey section describes a mail-based, pre/post survey, and the Results report no statistically significant difference in perceived safety between intervention and control areas. The paper measured feeling safe walking in the neighborhood, not fear of crime directly, and its Discussion cautions that the results describe changes across samples rather than within individuals or individual hot spots. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredRatcliffe et al. (2015) found no differences in perceptions of procedural justice or satisfaction with police among residents of control spots versus those receiving POP in Philadelphia.
“Using a mail survey, Ratcliffe et al. (2015) found no differences in perceptions of procedural justice or satisfaction with police among residents of control spots versus those receiving POP in Philadelphia.”
From Problem-oriented policing for reducing crime and disorder: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis (2020) · cites this paper as Ratcliffe et al. (2015)
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Cites
HOT SPOTS OF PREDATORY CRIME: ROUTINE ACTIVITIES AND THE CRIMINOLOGY OF PLACE*
SHERMAN, L. W., GARTIN, P. R., & BUERGER, M. E. (1989) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1989.tb00862.x · Cited by 2,104 · see citing works
General deterrent effects of police patrol in crime “hot spots”: A randomized, controlled trial
Sherman, L. W., & Weisburd, D. (1995) · Justice Quarterly · doi:10.1080/07418829500096221 · Cited by 1,029 · see citing works
Improving Policing: A Problem-Oriented Approach
Goldstein, H. (1979) · Crime & Delinquency · doi:10.1177/001112877902500207 · Cited by 793 · see citing works
Ratcliffe, J. H. (2016) · doi:10.4324/9781315717579 · Cited by 646 · see citing works
Self-citationGau, J. M., & Brunson, R. K. (2010) · Justice Quarterly · doi:10.1080/07418820902763889 · Cited by 582 · cited 1× · see citing works
“In such cases, citizens may feel harassed and may perceive that they, their families, or their friends have been unfairly targeted, especially if they feel they were treated poorly (Brunson and Miller 2006; Gau and Brunson 2010).”
WEISBURD, D., WYCKOFF, L. A., READY, J., ECK, J. E., HINKLE, J. C., & GAJEWSKI, F. (2006) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2006.00057.x · Cited by 533 · see citing works
RATCLIFFE, J. H., TANIGUCHI, T., GROFF, E. R., & WOOD, J. D. (2011) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2011.00240.x · Cited by 436 · see citing works
Self-citationHinkle, J. C., & Weisburd, D. (2008) · Journal of Criminal Justice · doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2008.09.010 · Cited by 230 · see citing works
DOES WHAT POLICE DO AT HOT SPOTS MATTER? THE PHILADELPHIA POLICING TACTICS EXPERIMENT*
GROFF, E. R., RATCLIFFE, J. H., HABERMAN, C. P., SORG, E. T., JOYCE, N. M., & TAYLOR, R. B. (2015) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/1745-9125.12055 · Cited by 202 · cited 4× · see citing works
“We point readers to the experimental evaluation for further information on the design of the study and the results (Groff et al. 2015).”
InfluentialSelf-citationEffects of Hot Spots Policing on Crime <sup/>
Braga, A. A. (2007) · Campbell Systematic Reviews: Better Evidence for a Better World · doi:10.4073/csr.2007.1 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
<i>Critic</i> The limits of hot spots policing
Rosenbaum, D. P. (2006) · Police Innovation · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511489334.013 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Community policing against guns: Public opinion of the kansas city gun experiment
Shaw, J. W. (1995) · Justice Quarterly · doi:10.1080/07418829500096251 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
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Hinkle, J. C., Weisburd, D., Telep, C. W., & Petersen, K. (2020) · Campbell Systematic Reviews: Better Evidence for a Better World · doi:10.1002/cl2.1089 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
DOES WHAT POLICE DO AT HOT SPOTS MATTER? THE PHILADELPHIA POLICING TACTICS EXPERIMENT*
GROFF, E. R., RATCLIFFE, J. H., HABERMAN, C. P., SORG, E. T., JOYCE, N. M., & TAYLOR, R. B. (2015) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/1745-9125.12055 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Ratcliffe, J. H., Groff, E. R., Sorg, E. T., & Haberman, C. P.
- Affiliations
- Temple University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ratcliffe, Jerry H.
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Criminology
- Published
- 2015-04-19
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 393-417
- ISSN
- 1572-8315 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3750
- OpenAlex
- W1970274574
- Cited by
- 91
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 4 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 36.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Criminology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Keywords
- hot spot policing, foot patrol, problem-oriented policing, perceived safety, procedural justice, violent crime, crime reduction
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