Hot Spot
Definition
A small geographic area, sometimes as small as a single address or street segment, where crime concentrates at a rate substantially above the surrounding area. Hot-spot analysis is the spatial equivalent of repeat victimisation analysis applied at the place level.
- Scale
- Can be as small as a single address or street segment
- Defining feature
- Crime rate substantially above the surrounding area
- Related concept
- Spatial equivalent of repeat victimisation at the place level
- Common analysis output
- Kernel density or grid-based crime maps
Common questions
How stable are hot spots over time?+
Research generally finds hot spots are persistent rather than random, with a small number of street segments or addresses accounting for a disproportionate share of calls for service year after year, which is what makes place-based policing viable as a strategy.
What causes crime to concentrate this tightly at the micro-place level?+
Facilities that create opportunity, such as bars, vacant buildings or transit stops, combined with weak guardianship and repeat offending by the same individuals against the same location, tend to explain concentration better than broad neighbourhood demographics alone.
Does identifying a hot spot tell you why it exists?+
No, identification is descriptive. Explaining a hot spot requires follow-up analysis, such as examining land use, offender routines and victim characteristics at that location, before an intervention can be targeted appropriately.
Related terms
- Boost Theory
- The explanation that repeat victimisation arises because the original offender returns, having gained operational knowledge of the target, its routines, and its...
- Flag Theory
- The explanation that repeat victimisation arises because a target has stable characteristics, such as poor natural surveillance or weak security, that make...
- Lifestyle-Routine Activity Theory
- A framework that links individual victimisation risk to the daily routines and lifestyle choices that bring potential victims into proximity with motivated...
- Repeat Victimisation
- The empirical pattern in which a small proportion of people or locations experience a disproportionate share of violent incidents. Domestic violence shows...
- Series Victimisation
- A pattern in which a victim experiences multiple similar incidents so frequently that they cannot recall each one individually. Domestic abuse is...