Hot Spots Policing Experiments and Criminal Justice Research: Lessons from the Field

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 599, S. 220-245

Abstract

In this article, more general lessons are drawn from two randomized experiments in hot-spots policing that the author helped design & implement in the 1990s: the Minneapolis Hot Spots Experiment & the Jersey City Drug Market Analysis Experiment. Using a case study approach, factors that facilitate & inhibit development & implementation of randomized trials are identified with particular focus on the special problems &/or advantages of place-based experiments. While the author's main comments focus on the success of place-based randomized trials in evaluating hot spots policing approaches, he draws insight as well into the reasons why the successful example of experiments in hot spots policing has not inspired similar place-based experimentation in other areas of policing or criminal justice. Eight specific lessons regarding the implementation & development of place-based randomized trials & experimental methods more generally are identified. 87 References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2005 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]