Dr. Troy Payne, Justice faculty, recently published an article on "Hot Spots" in the new reference work by Sage Publishing, Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving."Hot spots" refers to the spatiotemporal clustering of crime — that is, crime is not randomly distributed across time and space. Crime tends to cluster at both locations and times of day. Analyzing this clustering can often lead to clues to the immediate causes of the crime clusters, which in turn informs crime prevention practice.
This encyclopedia looks at community policing as a philosophy which supports the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues. The work is a collection of over 150 entries by significant figures in the research field.
