Crime Hotspots in Washington DC

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Crime hot spots are considered crime infested areas. A hot spot is an area that has a greater than average number of criminal or disorder events, or an area where people have a higher than average risk of victimization (Weisburd, 2005). Hot spots vary and may be hotter than others. All neighborhoods, good or bad, have crime hot spots. Most streets free from crime have problematic areas. Factors that contribute to hot spots are always different. Most hot spots is a place that several crimes occur in. Even in a high-crime area, crime is concentrated in a few places or places with no crime at all.

Underlying causes of crime occur in places where repeated crime with different victims, repeated victimization, and different places. People fall victim to crime doing normal business such as going to and from school, work, bus stops, shopping, or recreation activities. These crimes occur along routes that offenders usually use. Hot spots for crime occur were victim’s frequently visits most such as gas stations, retail stores, convenience stores, and fast food stores. Another hot spot for crime occur along routes with high traffic drug dealing.

In recent years, hot spots in Washington, DC have become increasing problematic and increasingly high in crime. These spots include Anacostia, Outter Southeast, H Street Corridor, The NE & SE Quadrants, Ivy City, Drake Place, and Trinidad just to name a few. In the fight against crime in hot spots, many police department in DC have adopted many strategic tactics including the use of curfews and surveillance cameras in high-crime areas and initiated new search-and-seize methods to get guns off the street (Lanier, 2005). In May 2008, a rash or fatal shootings in the Trinidad section instituted a five day checkpoint check by officers of any driver wishing to enter the area.

Other method that is presently being used In DC to combat the war on crime includes targeted patrols. Target patrols concentrate on crime hot spots and time that they occur, also called hot times. In a targeted patrol, many officers cover a specific area in marked police cars with flashing lights to maximize visibility to offenders (Lanier, 2005). Also, targeting specific areas or different types of crimes with high-tech policing that give investigators the capability to analyze crime minute-by-minute increasing greater ability and success in the attack on crime before it happens. These tactics have proved to be very valuable by reducing crime within 90 days (Lanier, 2005).

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