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Displacement

Definition

The relocation of crime following a prevention intervention. Can take five forms: territorial (to another place), temporal (to another time), target (to another victim), tactical (using a different method), and type (switching to a different crime). Total displacement would mean no net reduction in crime; research consistently finds displacement is partial at most.

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,...
Burglary
The offence of entering a building or structure without authorisation with intent to commit an offence inside. Distinguished from theft by the...
Community safety partnership
A multi-agency governance arrangement that brings together police, local government, health, housing, education, and voluntary bodies to share data and coordinate responses...
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...
Dark figure of crime
The gap between the actual volume of crime and the amount recorded in official statistics. Crimes go unrecorded when victims do not...
Developmental crime prevention
Interventions targeting risk and protective factors at key life-course stages, particularly early childhood and adolescence, to reduce the probability that an individual...
Diffusion of benefits
The spread of crime-reduction effects beyond the area or targets directly covered by an intervention. Offenders uncertain about the extent of a...
Hot products (CRAVED)
The acronym CRAVED (Concealable, Removable, Available, Valuable, Enjoyable, Disposable) describes the characteristics that make consumer goods attractive theft targets. Developed by Clarke...
Neighbourhood regeneration
Physical, economic, and social improvement of deprived or high-crime areas, including housing renovation, public space design, employment schemes, and community organisation, as...
Opportunity structure
The set of environmental, social, and product conditions that make specific crimes more or less easy to commit. Situational prevention works by...
Primary, secondary, tertiary prevention
A public-health framework applied to crime: primary targets the whole population, secondary targets individuals or communities at elevated risk, tertiary targets known...

Explained in these topics

  • Property Crime and Economic OffendingThe relocation of offending in response to prevention measures, whether to different places (spatial displacement), times (temporal displacement), targets, met...
  • Situational Crime PreventionThe relocation of crime following a prevention intervention. Can take five forms: territorial (to another place), temporal (to another time), target (to anothe...
  • Social Prevention and Community SafetyThe potential movement of crime to adjacent times, places, targets, tactics, or offence types when prevention reduces crime in one specific location or form. A...

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