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The purpose of this paper is to combine both Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and space syntax for the more detailed and overall analysis of built environment in terms of crime. The author is aiming to verify the designed research methodology by its application in cities that are similar in terms of size and population, and are very different in culture and location: New Haven (USA) and Kaunas (Lithuania).

Based on CPTED strategies the factors of urban environment are analyzed, such as topological depth from private space to a public space, density of entrances and windows, street’s constitutedness, inter-visibility, land use, blind walls, segment’s accessibility, greenery, lighting, objects of small architecture, graffiti. Space syntax method is applied for the analysis of the following topological properties of urban spaces: integration, choice, depth, connectivity.

The combination of both methods revels that choice and depth of urban spaces are related to robberies, and connectivity and depth are related to thefts from motor vehicles in New Haven. Integration and depth are related to thefts from motor vehicles in Kaunas. According to the correlation analysis results, in Kaunas more robberies happen in common use areas, and more thefts from cars happen in the spaces with blind walls and dense abandoned greenery. In New Haven more thefts from motor vehicles happen in spaces with blind walls. In both cities with the increase of the topological depth the thefts from motor vehicles increase too.

Based on the research results recommendations on urban planning and design are developed. The implementation of the recommendations might make New Haven and Kaunas safer.

The purpose of this paper is to identify a workable methodology to prioritise those crime scenes which have the greatest opportunity of a forensic recovery to enable effective Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) resource deployment.

The motivation behind this work stemmed from an abundance of volume crime scenes that required examination and a lack of resources that could be deployed. Within a data mining application environment, two supervised learning algorithms were used to model Northamptonshire Police's forensic data to provide a computer‐based model that could predict the outcome of finding a forensic sample at the currently unattended scene of a crime.

Based on past data, a computer model could be produced to predict the probability of finding useful fingerprints, DNA and/or footwear marks at the scene of a volume crime. In this paper, volume crime means burglary dwelling, burglary in commercial buildings, theft of and theft from motor vehicles. The model was 68 percent accurate. CSIs were 41 percent accurate in their predictions. This has been tested within five different police forces each having differing computer systems, demonstrating that the methodology is portable.

The model, when connected to either a crime recording system or an incident recording system, can produce a prioritised crime scene attendance list within minutes and assess crimes/incidents as they are reported. This list can be seamlessly used in conjunction with other attendance criteria if required, e.g. vulnerable victim, etc.

This paper provides a scientific solution to CSI resource attendance management being proved in five different UK police forces.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of user-defined parameters settings (e.g. interpolation method, grid cell size, and bandwidth) on the predictive accuracy of crime hotspot maps produced from kernel density estimation (KDE).

The influence of variations in parameter settings on prospective KDE maps is examined across two types of interpersonal violence (e.g. aggravated assault and robbery) and two types of property crime (e.g. commercial burglary and motor vehicle theft).

Results show that interpolation method has a considerable effect on predictive accuracy, grid cell size has little to no effect, and bandwidth as some effect.

The current study advances the knowledge and understanding of prospective hotspot crime mapping as it answers the calls by Chainey et al. (2008) and others to further investigate the methods used to predict crime.

The purpose of this exploratory study is to expand on a previously developed crime harm index – the California Crime Harm Index (CA-CHI) – by discussing the development of the CA-CHI and presenting a comparison of the distribution of crime count and harm in a large Western city in the United States.

This study used descriptive analyses, spatial univariate mapping and bivariate choropleth maps to analyze the distribution of Part I crime counts and harm.

Results of the analysis show that while there was some variation in the distribution of crime count and harm city wide, spatial mapping and statistics reveal that the geographical distribution of crime count and harm across census tracts are largely consistent.

Minor discrepancies between the distribution of crime count and harm indicate the potential for the CA-CHI to inform law enforcement practices. However, the distributions remain largely similar at the census tract level. There is room for further development of the CA-CHI to better distinguish between the distribution of crime harm and volume.

No other study has used spatial mapping techniques like bivariate choropleth mapping to examine the distribution of crime volume and crime harm based on the CA-CHI in any location in California.

The themes of accessibility and accountability have come to dominate the police reform agenda in the UK. They are evident, especially, in the rhetoric of ‘neighbourhood policing’, which has been delivered across England and Wales, and in the ‘policing pledge’, which sets out a series of commitments regarding what the public can expect from their local police service. This paper is concerned with exploring these themes and their application in neighbourhood policing. It examines how officers in two police services have sought to implement the requirements of neighbourhood policing and the policing pledge in terms of improving accessibility and accountability of local policing. In doing so, it focuses on arrangements for consulting with members of the public, providing updates regarding their actions and outcomes in addressing local problems and on the provision of data and maps about crime problems. Practice implications are identified.

The strategic intelligence assessment (SIA) plays an important role in contemporary intelligence‐led policing by helping to identify strategic priorities for policing activity, crime reduction and improvements in community safety. Originally defined in the UK's National Intelligence Model, the SIA is produced annually by all local UK police districts as well as other agencies in the UK and internationally that have adopted intelligence‐led principles. The purpose of this paper is to critique the two most common approaches to its production, structuring its content following a “crime‐type” template or an assessment that is based on previous strategic priorities.

The paper's critique is based on reviewing one hundred SIAs from police forces and Community Safety Partnerships in the UK and through speaking to practitioners on their experiences in using these intelligence products to determine strategic priorities.

The paper identifies weaknesses in both, arguing that neither tends to generate strategic intelligence products that are fit for the purpose for effective decision making, and in particular in helping to harness support from local government partners to address persistent and causal factors. As an alternative the study introduce a problem‐oriented approach to the production of strategic intelligence, with an assessment made in relation to place (locations and temporal features), offending and offender management, and victimisation and vulnerability.

The paper illustrates that the problem‐oriented approach leads to the production of a SIA that is more cross‐cutting in its analysis of crime and community safety issues, and more naturally leads to the identification of strategic priorities that focus on addressing causal issues.

The eradication of corruption is feasible only through the confiscation of the proceeds of corruption. This could be achieved through the joint efforts of national governments, the international community and with the political will in the North. In this paper, it is proposed that zero tolerance to corruption by municipal reforms and international cooperation, could be demonstrated by confiscation of the proceeds of corruption, the billions of dollars illegally kept abroad through money laundering by kleptocrats. The proceeds of corruption should be monitored and policed by an international organisation like the International Criminal Tribunal. The body would avert the disappearance of the money into the black holes of foreign private accounts.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the elements, developmental stages, and operational steps of an open‐air drug market intervention employed in two North Carolina communities in an effort to produce a model that can be duplicated by other law enforcement agencies.

A systematic and practitioner‐informed analysis of the steps and stages of the initiative is presented here. Law enforcement partners at the command and operational levels collectively contributed their voices to the synthesis of this model. Through purposive sampling, 13 key law enforcement stakeholders from the two police departments in North Carolina participated in semi‐structured interviews conducted by a member of the research team. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed to extract participants' perceptions and recommendations regarding the intervention.

Based on analyses of the interviews, the street‐drug elimination strategy has been synthesized into several major steps. This paper elucidates the elements, developmental stages, and operational steps of the intervention.

This paper underscores important ingredients of the intervention and presents a model for other police departments to implement. Further examination of the strategy is necessary including research on improving the intervention, clarifying the factors that moderate the strategy's effectiveness, explicating the roles and perceptions of non‐law enforcement partners and examining the continued impact of the initiative.

The paper illustrates that this intervention has shown promise in reducing drug and violent crime associated with open‐air drug markets and the research is of value to other police agencies that desire to implement this intervention.

Global drug control is coming under increasing criticism. Failures to stop or even reduce drug use and the increasing power of the black market highlight prohibition. Alan Steel explores the potential benefits of licensing drug sales using models from alcohol and tobacco licenses. In a time of consumer choice and increasing disregard for unworkable policies might it be time to regain control?