Diffusion of Benefits
Definition
The spread of crime-reduction effects beyond the area or targets directly covered by an intervention. Offenders uncertain about the extent of a prevention measure may also avoid adjacent areas or targets, producing crime falls that exceed the scope of the original measure.
- Effect direction
- Crime reduction spreading beyond the covered area
- Underlying cause
- Offender uncertainty about a measure's extent
- Field
- Situational crime prevention
Common questions
How does diffusion of benefits differ from displacement?+
Displacement describes offenders shifting their activity to a different target, time, or method to avoid a prevention measure, while diffusion of benefits describes the opposite outcome: crime falling in adjacent areas or targets not directly covered, because offenders are unsure exactly where the measure applies and avoid a wider zone than necessary.
Why is uncertainty the key mechanism behind diffusion of benefits?+
If offenders knew precisely where a camera, patrol, or lighting measure ended, they could simply operate just outside its boundary, but because the exact edge of coverage is often unclear, caution leads them to avoid a margin beyond the actual intervention, producing the observed spillover reduction in crime.
Related terms
- 25 Techniques
- Ronald Clarke's classification of situational crime prevention methods into 25 specific techniques organised under five mechanisms: increasing effort, increasing risk, reducing rewards,...
- CPTED
- Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. An applied design discipline using natural surveillance (sightlines, lighting), territorial reinforcement (ownership cues), natural access control (barriers,...
- Crime Script Analysis
- A method developed by Derek Cornish that maps the sequential steps an offender must complete to commit a particular crime type, from...
- Displacement
- The relocation of crime following a prevention intervention. Can take five forms: territorial (to another place), temporal (to another time), target (to...
- Opportunity Structure
- The set of environmental, social, and product conditions that make specific crimes more or less easy to commit. Situational prevention works by...