Author Description

For nearly two decades, the COPS Office has been promoting community policing and problem solving as adaptable approaches to address various types of crime and disorder. A common theme across these approaches is that strategies informed by community policing should be leveraged whenever possible to promote approaches that support prevention efforts over those that promote strict enforcement and formal processing of low-level offenders. These principles are particularly relevant to juvenile offending. In this publication, researchers from George Mason University's Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy illustrate in concrete and practical terms how emerging practices of hot spot policing can be specifically applied to juvenile offending. This innovative guide breaks new ground by providing technical guidance to assist crime analysts seeking to produce juvenile hot spot maps. It also provides insights about place-based interventions that can be targeted to prevent juvenile offending at micro-hot spots: specific street blocks and intersections found to have elevated levels of juvenile offending.