Burglary reduction and the myth of displacement / by Jerry Ratcliffe.

Canberra : Australian Institute of Criminology, 2002.

22850

Burglary -- Australia.

Crime prevention -- Australia.

Crime -- Australia.

Criminals -- Australia.

Burglary reduction initiatives often encounter the objection that targeted operations simply displace crime to another area. This paper examines the existing body of knowledge about spatial displacement in regard to burglary reduction initiatives and examines the results of a study undertaken to explore the displacement impact of Operation Anchorage, a burglary reduction initiative undertaken by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in Canberra in 2001. The paper describes a methodology, a Monte Carlo nearest neighbour approach, for assessing the spatial displacement of burglary, and finds that no significant displacement took place during the first weeks of Operation Anchorage, even though the AFP was able to reduce burglary by a considerable amount. The paper discusses the possible reasons for this lack of displacement, and concludes that accurately targeted, theoretically sound and evidentially based crime prevention initiatives can be successful without increasing the risk to surrounding areas. - Publisher's website.

0642242704

6 p.