Policing Dosage and the Diffusion of Benefits

• In Event: Criminological Theory

Abstract

It is widely recognized that police patrol has an impact on crime and disorder that extends over an area well beyond the exact spatial location of the patrol unit. It is also clear that this impact lasts for a considerable period of time after a patrol unit has left a given location. The mechanisms responsible for these effects are poorly known, however. In this paper we examine the empirical patterns of place-based policing dosage arising in the LAPD Predictive Policing experiment. We use this evidence to relate policing dosage to a family of well-known stochastic processes. We propose that these stochastic processes lie at the heart of the spatial and temporal diffusion of benefits.

Authors

• P. Jeffrey Brantingham, University of California, Los Angeles

• George Mohler, Santa Clara University

• George Tita, University of California, Irvine