Does CCTV displace crime?
| Author | Sam Waples,Peter Fisher,Martin Gill |
| Published date | 01 May 2009 |
| Date | 01 May 2009 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895809102554 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Criminology & Criminal Justice
© The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and Permissions:
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ISSN 1748–8958; Vol: 9(2): 207–224
DOI: 10.1177/1748895809102554
Does CCTV displace crime?
SAM WAPLES, MARTIN GILL AND PETER FISHER
University of London, UK, Perpetuity Research and Consultancy
International, UK, and University of Leicester, UK
Abstract
Crime displacement is a concern often raised regarding situational
crime prevention measures. A national evaluation of closed circuit
television cameras (CCTV) has provided an interesting test-bed
for displacement research. A number of methods have been used
to investigate displacement, in particular visualization techniques
making use of geographical information systems (GIS) have been
introduced to the identification of spatial displacement. Results
concur with current literature in that spatial displacement of
crime does occur, but it was only detected infrequently. Spatial
displacement is found not to occur uniformly across offence type or
space, notably the most evident spatial displacement was actually
found to be occurring within target areas themselves. GIS and spatial
analysis have been shown to complement more typical crime analysis
methods and bring a much needed dimension to the investigation of
displacement.
Key Words
CCTV • crime displacement • geographical information systems (GIS)
Introduction
Crime displacement has long been viewed as an endemic weakness in
debates about the merits of situational crime prevention measures. The con-
cern is that situational measures do not stop offences they merely move
them in some way. One example of a situational measure is CCTV, which
has become commonplace around the UK (McCahill and Norris, 2003) and 207
Criminology & Criminal Justice 9(2)208
has received considerable government support.1 The main aim of CCTV has
been to reduce fear of crime, if not crime itself (see Gill and Spriggs, 2005).
CCTV then becomes an interesting test-bed for displacement research,
not least given that a large amount of data has been collected as part of a
national evaluation of CCTV.
Gill and Spriggs (2005) review the notable crime movements identi-
fied from an evaluation of 13 out of the 352 CCTV projects set up under
Round Two of the Crime Reduction Programme (CRP) initiative. This
article focuses upon spatial or geographical displacement in the schemes
evalu ated above. It was explored using two techniques. The first involves
a typical quasi-experimental approach, and the second makes use of GIS
and visualization techniques. The article also aims to assess whether any
changes in crime patterns amount to displacement and whether these can be
attributed to the implementation of CCTV. The overall results show little
evidence of displacement, however the patterns that are identified prove to
be interesting. In addition to reporting these research findings the article
highlights some general points about methodologies used to measure spatial
displacement.
Understanding displacement
It needs to be noted that the movement of crime is not necessarily a bad thing,
sometimes there can be advantages; this is known as benign displacement
(for an example, see Bowers et al., 2004). But often this is not the case with
the consequence that crime displacement is bad or neutral, such as from rich
to poor, or from urban to rural, or from businesses to household, or from
big business to little business. The important thing for the researcher is to
under stand the characteristics of any movement since displacement can take
a variety of forms (Clarke and Weisburd, 1994). Six types of displacement
in particular have been identified in the literature (see Repetto, 1976). These
include:
• Spatial/Geographical Displacement—the same crime is moved from one
location to another.
• Temporal Displacement—the same crime in the same area but committed
at a different time.
• Tactical Displacement—the offender uses new means (modus operandi) to
commit the same offence.
• Target Displacement—offenders choose a different type of victim within
the same area.
• Functional Displacement—offenders change from one type of crime to
another, for example from burglary to robbery.
Barr and Pease (1990) added a sixth category to the original classification.
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